Cry For Me
by BitterSweetCrimson
Summary: NaruSaku At the begining of the end, he was the only one there to watch me die. Spiraling together, one entity, we still hadn't learned the difference between death and destiny. Neither let go, we fell into the unknown. Together forever, never letting go.
1. Couch Surfing

_Disclaimer: I own 3 un-matching socks and several band posters but nothing more._

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 1**

**Couch Surfing**

Hi, I'm Sakura Haruno. On with the story.

What happened that afternoon is a prime example of why parents should beat their children. They should beat them fucking senseless.

Anyway, (before someone calls child services) there is a reason I hate kids (you may put down the phone now).

It is because a particular one ruined my whole fucking life.

At the time it occurred, I loved kids. That is right, LOVED them. I even wanted a few of my own someday. However, _no_, that day I learned that they are tiny little monsters.

Here is how it pretty much went down:

It was around noon when it happened, I remember because my 16-hour shift had just ended at the hospital (I needed the cash). It was then that the little piece of shit approached me. At the time, I briefly considered him cute (the fucking demon in sheep's skin).

"Please help my friend, he's really badly hurt." The boy pleaded. He could not have been older than ten.

"Okay, where is he?" I assumed he was probably exaggerating so I was not in any big hurry and I was already wiped from work.

The kid grabbed my skirt and started pulling me. We went into an alley, then another, and another, until we found his friend. His friend was considerably older than the kid. His 'friend' was older than me (at the time I was 17). His 'friend' could pass for 20. His 'friend' could pass for a thug. Which, by the way, he was. Damn you friend! I'll hunt you down too!

Loose jeans, white beater, and one aluminum bat.

"Good job, kid. She looks like she's got some cash on her." The friend smiled to the munchkin who had released my skirt and backed away.

Great, a mugging. Peachy, right?

I played citizen when the guy charged me and switched into ninja mode just in time. He's just a thug, so what's the problem? That's what I thought. I was wrong, oh so freaking wrong.

My chakra-laden hand stopped then bent his bat until it was useless. If he was a normal guy he would have realized it was over when suddenly his hands were surrounded by chakra of his own and it solidified into knives. Chakra scalpels. Caught off guard he got a nice cut on my stomach. On pure instinct I kicked him in the groin with super chakra-laced strength. He doubled over (score one for chicks everywhere).

I considered the threat over until the kid jumped on my back. And this is where I started hating children. The brat _bit my neck_. Like he was playing vampire or something. And shit did it hurt. He drew blood. His arm came up while I struggled to remove his teeth from my neck the hand came down and shoved a needle in my arm. The shot drained into my bloodstream.

And goddamn did it hurt. I screamed like crazy. Pain slithered through me from where it was administered and I threw my head back in pain, screaming bloody murder.

White hot pain erupted and blocked my vision and all other senses before it turned black.

When I woke up again it must have been several hours later, the sun was going down, and I was still lying on the ground in that alley. My wounds from the fight had stopped bleeding but a dull ache was pulsing under the new thin scabs. My entire stomach (worst wound) was entirely numb.

Besides that and my messy hair, everything seemed fine. Whatever that shot was I wasn't feeling any effects. Not yet.

The medic in me kicked in and I knew I needed to find some place to dress my wounds. Coincidentally I was closer to Kakashi's place than the hospital.

_Shit, if he finds out how much of an idiot I was I'm in for one hell of a speech._

I decided to risk it. When he opened his door and saw the dried blood he stepped aside.

As I was walking past him he asked, "What did you do this time?"

"Nothin'," I answered in a baby voice and gave him the puppy eyes. He sighed and gave in, didn't ask anymore while I dressed my wounds in front of his bathroom mirror, and let me leave without any further questioning.

He even gave me some cash for a ramen dinner.

"Thanks," I called over my shoulder on the way out.

It was dark within the next five minutes and then it began to rain (my day was going GREAT so far, huh?) so I sought shelter from the closest living person I knew. Ino.

Sleeping on her couch that night began a long line of couch surfing began before I told anyone besides Tsunade what had happened. This happened to be the most stressful stretch of time in my life during which I prayed to any lord, god, or demon that was listening. I prayed no one would notice as I, very slowly, began to die. The funny thing is that during that overnight stay I slept well, deeply, like I would never wake up…


	2. Falling Apart

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 2**

**Falling Apart**

Ino pretty much kicked me out after breakfast and from there I went to the Hokage tower. I had to report what had happened. No street thug can control his chakra like that. I hardly could. I took my sweet time getting there though. Tsunade was going to hand me quite the earful when she hears how mcuh of a dumbass I had been.

I guess I was still tired because I was a bit dizzy and walking pretty tipsy. My vision was foggy too by the time I got to Tsunade's office, not to mention I was feeling very light headed with lead feet. Was I simply tired or was it the side effects from the shot?

I could hardly keep my balance as I explained what happened in a daze to Tsunade. When I finished I felt like I could pass out any minute.

"You don't look so good." Tsunade commented, concerned when I finished my tale.

"Really? 'Cause I don't feel so good either," I said and my eyes kept going in and out of focus.

Those words seem to have willed my stomach to reject whatever had been baking within its walls and suddenly it felt like I had been punched in the gut. I doubled over with pain and dark, black clotted blood spewed from my mouth and all over my sandaled feet. Slimy…

"Oh, my god!" she screeched.

With me half conscious she, with the help of several medical nin, rushed me to the hospital. Upon arrival I was put into vital care in a private room while they ran tests. All the standards. Heart rate, blood pressure, and all that stuff came back normal. Then it got intense.

They started in on the heavy things including bone marrow which sucked because they didn't wait to numb my skin first. Everything came back perfect. They gave me several X-rays until I was sure if that shot I got yesterday didn't kill me, the radiation poisoning would.

Following that they CAT scanned my entire body, part my part. Everything came back perfect.

One thing was out of the ordinary, however. When they finally realized that they might want to get a blood sample my heart sank. They stuck the needle in the crook of my arm at the elbow and drew it out but instead of flowing red liquid all that came out was thick black sludge, like tar.

Tsunade personally did a chakra inspection on my body after that. It was abnormal too. If she had to describe it she said that my normal chakra was a light green and not dense and that the chakra I had not was a deep, electric purple. 'Demonic' was how she summed it up.

I'd been infected with a super drug and it was going to kill me.

The strangest thing about the day was that Tsunade recorded none of it. She also had everyone involved swear to secrecy. There was no cure so they would ignore it for now unless it became a hindrance. Meanwhile a search was conducted for the child and the man who'd attacked me.

After I was released it was about 5 but I had no appetite for dinner so I skipped on that and I went home. I buried myself under the covers even though it was early and I tried to fall asleep so I could escape the day. I was exhausted to say the least. Two hours later my eyes were still peeled open and I was still looking at the same wall.

I gave up on rest and decided I needed company.

"Who will let me sleep on their couch and feed me breakfast the next day?" I mused aloud, sitting up.

Ino was out since I mooched off of her last night. Guess Naruto was tonight's lucky winner.

On my way over I started thinking about what had happened. I was miserable. I was going to die. I didn't even know how it would affect my combat skills. Tsunade had promised not to tell anyone but I was free to.

I thought about telling Naruto most of that walk. Thus, that was the bleakest and most depressing walk of my entire life.

Reaching the door to his apartment I knocked twice with my knuckles. He answered soon after. He looked concerned. I didn't visit often enough.

_He'd cry._ A voice in the back of my head said cruelly. _He would cry for me. Someone had to._

Those random thoughts ripped me apart and I burst into tears right in front of his door. Right there with him watching me. His eyes were wide. He'd cry. I fell to my knees, bent over and covered my eyes with my palms and I cried.

_He'd miss me._

I'd miss him, too.

He bent down and put his arms around me and held me as I bawled. I sobbed, I sobbed my eyes out until they were red and swollen and so puffy I knew I looked like shit. I clutched onto his orange jacket and I screamed into his chest.

By the time I had calmed down he'd moved me inside, sat on his couch and he continued to allow me to latch onto him and cry. He let me cry, he didn't ask me what was wrong, he just let me weep and when I sucked up my snot and dried my eyes with the back of my hands I was still curled up in his chest.

I was sure that the only thing holding me together were his arms wrapped around me just tight enough. Listening to his heart beat, muffled by clothing, I breathed in rhythm with him until I felt okay to let go of him.

"Thank you," I whispered, afraid my voice would crack if I spoke any louder than that.

"What happened, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked me.

This was the time. I would either tell him now or it would become a big secret because if I was going to tell anyone first it would be Naruto. He was my best friend.

His blue eyes were desperate for an answer but I could tell he was scared of what the answer might be.

"Nothing, nothing," I lied, "just, one of the patients at the hospital passed away today, a small child, he died without his parents there."

"Oh," Naruto knew I was lying. His eyes settled though. He wanted to believe me. So, deep inside we came to an understanding. He wouldn't ask anymore, he would believe everything was fine, and I would say nothing but if I had to, it'd be to him.

And that was that.

All of a sudden it was a secret.

I thought I'd be fine, I could live on as I pleased for a while more. However, that wasn't the case.

I was never that lucky, it seemed.


	3. Mission

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 3**

**Mission**

By the end of the month I had slept on the couch of every nin from my graduating Genin class, minus Sasuke, times 12 on Naruto's, and plus a few at Kakashi's, Tsunade's, and even Genma once but that was a ONE TIME THING. NEVER AGAIN.

Genma is such a pervert.

However it didn't flow nicely forever. One morning Kakashi picked me up from the Hyuuga mansion (they love me there, 6 overnight stays since my diagnosis). Still no one knew, I just had my house tented and used that as an excuse. I was paying for extermination, paint, refurnishing, and anything else to render it un-livable.

That's not to say no one caught on though. I had symptoms of depression. None of it was a conscious decision or anything, it just sort of took me over. Weird things just started up.

Like I couldn't wear my normal clothes anymore, just the sight of my trade mark outfit started to disgust me. That stupid pink outfit reminded me of the naive girl who had a normal, relatively happy life. Why would I wear the clothes of a girl I was so jealous of? I was living on borrowed clothes that never actually fit me.

I talked a lot more though. Talked about everything and anything. Talked in circles and never talked about me. Spent as much time as I could talking and hanging with all the people I knew. I wanted to leave them with good memories.

I also became obsessed with anything that would supply me with noise. I couldn't live without someone talking or something playing in the background anymore. Silence was suffocating and I couldn't stand it anymore. Silence gave me time to think. Something about not knowing where you're going to sleep that night kept a girl busy and I didn't have time to think. That was the point. Thinking was bad for me.

I stopped being able to sleep. Sleep, darkness, night, and beddy-bye time was hell for me. While trying to fall asleep it would be quiet and I would toss and turn and silently cry and if I fell asleep I'd wake up in cold sweat without any memory of the dream. Drakness means silence and silence means bad, therefore darkness is bad.

Here's the weird thing though:

I ate like crazy then. I was just HUNGRY almost all of the time. I was a bottomless pit and after a few overindulged nights I finally realized it wasn't affecting my figure at all. Hadn't gained an ounce. So I ate more. I love food. Food fills the void where my plans for the future used to be.

Anyhow, that morning at the Hyuuga mansion Kakashi gave me the bad news. We had a mission.

I stole throwaway toothbrushes and toothpaste from Neji's bathroom (just to piss him off I took his favorite hairbrush too) and Hinata lent me the clothes we had bought for her over the years that she only ever wore under her jacket. I got extra weapons from Tenten, toiletries from Ino, explosives from Shikamaru, smoke bombs from Kiba, and food from Choji.

By the time we departed I was in debt to most people I knew.

Konoha was a bit short handed at the time so for this particular mission we were playing the part of hunter nin.

We were to search and capture some freak who had wronged the village in some overly complicated and annoying way. I use freak because apparently he's some sort of pedo-esque pervert. I get to be bait.

He was somewhere in Mist Village which was a long trip so we had to camp out a night before we would get there. Long after I had 'gone to sleep' I heard Kakashi and Naruto talking. Neither of them knew what was going on so they were making guesses about my current... 'condition'.

Cancer.

Post traumatic stress disorder from Sasuke.

The longest PMS ever.

Exhaustion.

Severe depression from... something...

I guess I had to have expected them to suspect something. How many teenage girls go on a couch surfing spree out of nowhere for weeks on end? The ones with issues, that who. They were taking it quite serious too. Kakashi mentioned that a lot of the captain's were concerned too, along with the owners of the homes I was sleeping at, AKA the parents of my former classmates.

After Naruto and Kakashi had gone to sleep too I scooted my sleeping bag over to Naruto's. He was still awake but only barely. His arms wrapped around me automatically and his eyes drifted closed. We fell asleep like that until morning. Kakashi didn't make any comments or even question it, he just accepted it. Naruto appologized several times, thinking it was he who had approached me.

That would be the first of several amazing times I would be sleeping so soundly, wrapped securly and safely in Naruto's arms.

That night we arrived, got a hotel, and I got all dolled up for a night of slutty stalking. In a mini jean skirt and black string bikini top paired with knee high high-heeled boots and plenty of accessories and make-up we set out for the club the mission tip off included.

He was easy to spot. Naruto and Kakashi waited outside for me to lead him out under the guise that he might score.

I sauntered over to him, he wasn't necessarily attractive… at all... but he didn't hide the fact he had money, his fingers were lined with expensive rings and his designer suit wasn't exactly 'conservative'.

A gold digger was also closing in on him and we arrived at the same time. She had a fake tan so I hoped he'd prefer the pale girl I represented over her. I had a mission here. She probably just had daddy issues.

The Freak (his official name in my point of view) summed us both up before he spurned the other girl. We both knew why. I was younger so I won.

He bought me a few drinks as we chatted coolly about random things. He asked me a lot of questions which I answered with lies except my name, Sakura seemed fake enough as it was.

"Do you live here?" He asked after ordering a Captain Mike.

Giggling flirtatiously I answered, "No I actually have a hotel room right now, it's really fancy, wanna see it?"

"I would love to." He answered, smiling like the freak he was.

He told the bar tender to put the bill on his tab (probably trying to look cool). We then both stood up and I faltered on purpose, falling into him.

"Oops, hehe, I'm a little dizzy, sorry."

"S'okay." He answered and led me out with his hand dangerously low on my back.

The second the doors closed behind him and we were in the dark night Naruto's fist collided into his face. He went flying it looked like an easy victory. Then a knife was at my neck.

_How did I not sense that?_

"Stop or I kill the girl," the man said. I reclined my head enough to see his face. I had seen him in the bar. He must be a body guard. He was large and beefy with a cropped haircut and an ugly face.

As if to prove his point he sliced my neck just a little and when my black blood slithered out just a little something within me snapped. I was above, separate from my body, looking down on the scene. Watching helplessly as all hell broke loose.


	4. My Dying Wish

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 4**

**My Dying Wish**

I woke up on Kakashi's back. We were leaping elegantly through the woods with insane speed. Naruto was nearby, I could feel his presence somewhere behind us. I could also tell we must have been just entering the woods surrounding village due to the familiar forestry.

_How long have I been out?_

I had a headache, pulsing hotly against my forehead. It felt similar to a hangover.

"What happened?" I asked and the words sounded distinctly like the moan of a sleepy child.

"To hell if I know…" Kakashi muttered more to himself.

"What _happened_ to you Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, eyes wide as he stared at me. He had hopped into my field of vision.

"I can't remember anything," I admitted, confused, "that jackass had a knife to my throat and then… nothing." I explained.

"'That jackass' is dead now, Sakura." Kakashi explained. "You tore him to shreds..."

"Yeah, it was like you were possessed." Naruto added.

"Shit," I muttered, glaring at nothing.

They didn't ask. I could feel the cut on my neck had already healed. Had they seen the black blood? The next afternoon we arrived home and were greeted by an angry Neji looking for his hairbrush. I put up a mild fight before finally returning it. Apparently it had been a gift from Tenten (ooh, scandalous).

I went to Naruto's apartment again that night, looking for a place to sleep. As always, he allowed me but it was cold and his couch didn't cut it. As he was curled up in bed I was freezing my ass off. At about 2AM I was still freezing my ass off, curled in on myself on his couch. To keep my mind busy and to avoid thinking I tunneled all my emotions into jealousy and glared at Naruto's back, wrapped snugly in, without a doubt, warm blankets.

Okay, now I don't expect much from Naruto. Not much at all. And I know him well but a person off the street could look at his apartment from outside and accurately predict he wasn't exactly set for the winter. Except for _himself_. The prick has a set of super warm bedding for the winter but for the couch all he has year round is a measly old sheet he rips off his bed when company spends the night.

It was quite a measly sheet, threadbare and thin to begin with with a wide weave so it offered no warmth just the assurance that there is something on you and that it's just a useless piece of shit. I'd kick Naruto's ass one day for the next 30-40 minutes I spent freezing on the couch that night. Plus, like the sheet, Naruto's _walls_ are also thin and the crisp air tore right into the room and decided 'I'm gonna be a dick and settle on this poor pink haired chick'. Eventually I got fed up with the dick-ish air.

Rolling off the lumpy mass of old furniture that Naruto _insisted _was a couch, I stood huffily and stole a sip from the tap water and then glanced in Naruto's room once more. The window over his bed wasn't shaded and moonlight poured in from the window casting the shadow of is curled up form across the floorboards. I took a step forward but the old wooden boards creaked angrily, stirring Naruto.

"What's up, Sakura-chan?" a barely awake voice asked.

"I'm cold, can I sleep with you?" I asked.

Naruto flipped over muttering something about a crazy dream then flipped back towards me. "Eh, why not?"

I scuttled over and snuck in under the covers and curled right into his arms. I was right, his bead was _much _warmer and I cradled my head on his shoulder, nuzzling my nose into his neck. Naruto settled his chin ontop of my head and we fell asleep like that.

Morning was weird, we woke up at exactly the same time and stared at each other for a good five minutes. I was wearing one of Naruto's T-shirts and a pair of his sweats and he was pretty much wearing the same thing which seemed to confuse him only briefly. Then he became confused as to why we were sharing a bed.

"Good Morning." I said, smiling at his startled expression. He can look _really_ cute sometimes, no lie.

"'Morning," he replied when all other words failed him.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

I put my hands of both sides of his face to hold him in place. I would tell him then and there. "I'm dying,"

Haha, just kidding.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

I seriously considered telling him the truth right then and there.

_He'd cry. Definitely._

FUCKING GUILT TRIPPER!!!

I 'grr'ed at my inner guilt spring device.

_I need someone to cry for me._ I told her.

I couldn't do this alone anymore. I couldn't die like this, feeling so alone. I couldn't die without telling anyone. Would they be angry if I did? Yes. Would they cry? Yes. He's going to cry enough when I die anyway, so what's the point of making him cry now too? A little white lie whispered that this is a valid point even though I knew it wasn't. Just a little lie could keep me together for now. Just for now that little white lie would keep me alive. _Happily_ alive, though? No but still, alive, and that's good enough, right? Right.

"Nevermind, nothing." I said, rolling out of bed and heading for the kitchen for breakfast.

I could kick myself for not taking the chace to tell him then, before everything else happened.


	5. I Don't Want To Be Alone In This Hell

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 5**

**I Don't Want to Be Alone In This Hell**

After, for the second time, I avoided telling Naruto my behavior became erratic. I became very paranoid. Every time someone called my name I thought they were coming to pity me. Every time Naruto offered me his undying kindness I felt like crying. Every time I saw one of my friends a little film would play in the back of my head of them at my funeral.

It just kept getting worse. Even though Tsunade knew, every time we made eye contact I was sure one of us was going to crack and start bawling right there on the floor. For people who didn't know it was even harder.

That paranoid winter passed by in uneven increments separated by time spent with Naruto, time spent away from Naruto, and time spent alone. Until, finally, it melted away into spring. When all the snow and ice abandoned the local scenery for the warmer season so did my resolve for keeping my situation a secret.

They had un-tented my house.

People had already started getting fed up with me but I still didn't want to go home. Eventually, about a week after my house had been un-tented, Naruto became the last option and I just couldn't be around him, I might totally blurt everything if he so much as hugged me. Every glace at his blue eyes and every time I saw him flash a smile I was sure I would crack and tell him. Just the sight of anything orange made the truth boil in the pit of my stomach trying to rise into my mouth, the pain of it deflating into my lungs, drying my throat, and almost causing me to choke, and the raw truth that I was dying alone would grip tightly around my heart, squeezing my life out of me faster than the drug that was causing this whole mess.

Thus, that night, towards the end of April, I went home.

Alone.

It was sparkling and I hardly recognized it, the fortune I'd spent was worth every yen. Everything was new and clean, colorful, exciting, and modern yet comfy. I loved it. I explored the whole house several times over and my awe stayed intact until I got hungry.

I fished a packet of instant ramen from my pocket, prepared it in the 3 minutes advertised on the pouch, and sat down to eat at the new marble island counter.

"Idakamasu!" I smiled, breaking some cheep chopsticks, which were part of the collection I was forming by going to the local ramen bar so often, and prepared to dig in but as my chopsticks approached the bowl I froze. It was quiet and I was all alone.

Suddenly my house wasn't filled with new, loud furniture, it was empty and hollow, just like me. It's hard to explain how silence has the potential to echo but it did, squeezing my head in its grasp.

_No one's crying_.

I was alone, everything around me was empty of life.

If silence were to sing in those few minutes it was reaching a crescendo at this part, like the ringing bell of a small child's single, constant scream.

I guess I was hallucinating the next bit when my kitchen disappeared and was replaced by never ending white walls.

"Is this death? I'm all alone… There's nothing here…"

No one answered, not even the voice in my head as my words bounced back to me several times.

I picked a direction and began running but either I was never going anywhere or the scenery of solid white walls never changed. It was like a hospital. White walls everywhere designed to calm patients but for most doctors who know this trick, such as me, it is a source of unease.

When I ran so much that it wasn't distracting anymore I crumpled to the floor, not from exhaustion but from the sheer crushing force of my shit-hole of a situation. I focused on my breathing.

Inhale.

Exhale.

It came in and out in the same, disgusting rattling of a train over a weak, wooden bridge at full speed. I tried again.

Inhale.

Exhale.

It sounded like wind ripping through the leafless trees of autumn.

Inhale.

Exhale.

This time it came out as what I wanted it to. My long-lost scream that had finally wormed its way to the surface. I tried again.

_Scream_.

Once more, it worked.

_Scream_.

This one was interrupted by my hysterics and before I knew it I was writhing on the ground from the force of my sobbing. For hours I was stuck in that horrible room and when I woke up at my kitchen table, head next to untouched ramen, the next morning I had regrets.

I didn't want regrets.

Wiping off the fat tears I'd cried in my sleep I changed into a new outfit and left the house, determined to change the future.

Here begins the most spontaneous moments in any teenage life… ever.

Well, I don't wanna die with regrets! I'll be happy, even if it kil- wait. Rephrase. I'll be happy _before_ it kills me.

Yeah, that works, right?

Damn, losing my sanity on top of my life. The Demon Lord must hate me.

I left my house. It was still early and no one was on the streets as the sun cracked just a bit over distant trees. I ran without chakra all the way to the hospital. I slowed to a walk before reaching the doors and went in. Immediately I ran into one of the doctors who knew. He was one of those whom had been there all those months ago.

"'Morning, Sakura-san." He said happily and cheerfully. He was, by nature, a sunny guy and actually pretty handsome.

I smiled back at him, showing my thanks for his not mentioning my… 'condition' can sum it up, right?

I maneuvered around the hustle and bustle of the never sleeping hospital with expert precision until I got to the locker room. I opened my locker, closing my eyes for a few minutes to remember the combination to the lock, and grabbed my set of keys and put on my name tag, pocketing my Hospital ID.

Without signing in, so as to avoid being called on, I snuck down to the morgue, avoiding notice. I rolled out my favorite John Doe.

The unclaimed body of this guy was flawless. His death would never be determined because due to lack of exterior damage we could just assume poison. No one wants to perform an autopsy on a child's body anyway.

Yes, John Doe is a child. His estimated age at time of death is eight. I don't know how long he'd been here but long enough for me to fall in love with him. He looked a lot like Naruto. Blonde hair, happy expression.

I put him on a stretcher and rolled him into the autopsy room. I sat down in a chair and stared at his body.

"Naruto…" I began, trying my hardest to alter this eight-year-old into the current eighteen-year-old Naruto. It was easier than I thought. Suddenly, in my mind's eye, he was the Naruto I knew, sitting on his stretcher, looking at me curiously. "I'm dying." I said. I pictured him cocking his head to the side in confusion. "What? Not going to say anyth-"

I was suddenly cut off.


	6. Lovers and Fighters

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 6**

**Lovers and Fighters**

The snotty retort I was going to give to a corpse's silence was cut off when I started coughing. Since I had been diagnosed this has happened a lot. My body would reject more and more of the blood and I would have no choice but to either cough it up as it came or hold it down and spontaneously puke it up later. I normally just chose to excuse myself and cough. However, today it was different.

I was coughing when something huge lodged itself in my throat and no more black blood was coming up but I couldn't help coughing because now I was chocking. Dry heaving on the floor the large object lodged in my throat came free and plopped to the ground with a sticky _Splat!_

It was a huge, black, clot of blood. I stared at it in horror. My coughing had stopped but suddenly I felt very empty, like all the thick, black, tar-ish blood was suddenly lighter. I poked the clot and as soon as my skin made contact the whole clot fell apart, melting out to be as smooth as butter. Then, abruptly, it hardened in the shape it had melted into which was just a bubbly puddle.

Terrified, I poked it again. Nothing happened but it was ice cold and as hard as the linoleum floor I was bent on. If the blood were to do the same thing inside my body… I would die.

Instantaneously.

The severity of the situation was like a slap in the face. As if the past few months had been nothing more than a terrible dream and now I had woken up to an even more impending and horrible reality. It was as if I had been drenched in icy cold water.

I even had the same symptoms as if I had.

Shocked, I had rolled John Doe back to his place before locking myself alone in the morgue. All of a sudden I was freezing, goose bumps rose on my skin, my teeth chattered, and even when I was hugging my knees to my chest I was still shivering uncontrollably. Every time I exhaled it came out quickly, as if I had been punched in the stomach. Every time I inhaled it was like a gasp of surprise.

I cried without realizing it and my vision blurred from all the tears. If death had phases I was entering the crying phase. My hands were almost numb from the cold and I rubbed my eyes uselessly until the thin skin of my eye lids felt raw and flaky. After that I began having nervous breakdowns where I would start repeating something to myself for a few minutes before switching to something else to chant. Phrase after meaningless phrase, I repeated them hoping one would save me or at least make me feel sane again.

"I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying."

"I'm all alone. No one can see me now. I'm all alone. No one can see me now. I'm all alone. No one can see me now."

"He'd cry. He'd cry. He'd cry."

"Naruto…"

"Naruto…"

"Naruto…"

In between these mantras I would gnaw at my wrists. I don't understand why, probably because I was so used to eating now. It was a habit, like how smokers need something in their hands right after they quit. I wouldn't break the skin or anything, but I would suck the skin raw until it was red and bleeding. Then I would switch wrists.

"Naruto…"

"Naruto…"

"Naruto…"

With a final hiccup I quit the repetitive chanting and looked at my wrists. It had just been an unconscious action and I was shocked to see how much damage I had done. I might as well have just torn the skin away. I healed them quickly, feeling shameful at how weak I was.

"I'm breaking down." I told myself as I moved from my sitting position to lay on the chilled floor. "I'm hopeless." I said and almost laughed at how honest it was. At least, for the first time in a long time, I was being honest to myself.

If only I could be honest with Naruto.

"Naruto…"

I muttered his name again, on reflex. Without my consent his name had become my mantra for comfort and safety. _He _offered me comfort and safety. Something about all the time I had spent with him as of late had changed something in me. I hated avoiding him as I had recently been doing. I avoided him because he meant too much to me. I couldn't tell him. Yet, I knew, I had to.

Suddenly, I sat up a rubbed the last of the tears away from my eyes. Determined, I started intently at a spot on the wall opposite of me. Once again, eighteen year old Naruto floated into vision in my mind's eye. He was smiling, not normally how I imagine him when I have to tell him something. Normally, when I try to imagine telling Naruto that I'm dying he looks grave and focused before I tell him. However, today he was smiling at me expectantly. "Naruto…" I began. _Best to just try for the truth, right? Have to start somewhere. C'mon, Sakura! The **truth**!_ "I love you!"

Oops, that can't be right.


	7. Breathe

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 7**

**Breathe**

My confession, the one confession I had never prepared myself for, echoed around the metallic room. The sound bounced off the walls and reverberated back to me, repeating endlessly as if I would forget if I didn't keep repeating. "I love you! I love you. _I love you._" So… that was the truth was it?

"I love him?" I yelled at the walls, for they seemed to like answering things for me today.

They echoed back without the tone of questioning. "I love him! I love him. _I love him._"

Stupid walls.

I'd spent all this time in this stupid little room trying to be honest with myself and when I finally say something completely honest it only makes things worse. I couldn't question it or deny it because deep in my lungs something was suddenly free, fluttering, and preventing me from saying against the echoing walls. I held back the impending tears. How could I have been so stupid? There was no time for tears. I had no choice now. I _had_ to tell Naruto.

I couldn't live the rest of my life without him and I was certainly not going to lie to the man I love anymore.

Inhale.

I couldn't tell him without a little preparation time.

Exhale.

I turned towards the door, opened it and headed through the hospital as cleverly as possible until I had arrived at Tsunade's private study. I knocked my traditional two raps with the back of my fist.

"Come in." Tsunade's tired voice answered from the other side of the doorway.

I walked in and saw that she was very distracted. She was pooled over several medical books and scrolls and several samples. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it for support. Tsunade finally looked up and she seemed surprised to see me there. I had been avoiding the hospital for obvious reasons.

"Sakura!" She exclaimed. "Where have you been? How are you?"

Somehow the latter question seemed to allude to much more than what it would sound like to an average passerby.

"Um… I have a problem." I admitted and looked at my feet.

"What?!" Tsunade asked, suddenly alarmed. I realized one of the samples on her desk was a Petri dish of my black blood. She had been looking for a cure? "Has your condition worsened?"

"Look, Tsunade… I'm in love with Naruto." It felt good to tell someone other than myself the god awful yet still god honest truth.

"Oh, Sakura…" Tsunade said, her eyes filling with pity. Or were those tears?

"I can't help it, I have to tell him." I told her as she came out from behind her desk to approach me.

"That you're dying or that you love him?" She asked.

"…Both." I said. I had to. It wasn't right to keep one a secret and not the other if they were both true. Did love and death come in a package deal? Nah, just for me. I'm special. I hate being special.

"Oh, Sakura…" Tsunade said again, this time the pity began to fall down her cheeks as she embraced me and I hugged back lightly, scared and relieved all at once. Finally, someone who understood.

.-.o.x.0.X.0.x.o.-.

I was _trying _to walk to Naruto's apartment but every few yards I would stop and battle with my inner self on whether or not this was the right decision. To break down, after all this time, and tell Naruto everything? Upfront and personal, could I tell him?

Then I would turn around, walk a few feet in the opposite direction, pause, turn around _again_ and begin walking towards Naruto's again. It took seventy-three tires to finally get all the way up Naruto's steps to the door of his apartment. Upon finally reaching his door I spent a good few minutes staring at it building up courage.

I took in a shaky breath hesitantly and threw one last longing glance at the stairs with the seemingly comical idea of throwing myself down those steps running through my head. If I hadn't spent so much effort on actually _arriving_ I probably would have. Exhale. My eyes flashed back to the beaten wooden door.

Inhale.

I raised my fist and with the back of it I knocked on the door twice in quick succession. Shuffling footsteps and fumbling could be heard from inside and a few seconds later Naruto pulled the door away. He was smiling at me happily.

Exhale.

I returned his happy-go-lucky smile and his grew in turn. The omnipresence of the situation that normally weighed me down was battling with Naruto whom made me feel weightless. "Why're you so happy?" I asked him casually and genuinely joyfully as I walked into his apartment.

"Well…" he began, the smile disappeared and I was sorry I asked. Inhale. "You've been a bit… off the past few months and yesterday you went home for the first time since then and today, the first thing you do is come here." The smile returned. "That makes me happy, I guess."

Exhale.

Inhale.

"Well…" Exhale. "I actually have bad news and worse news for you concerning… me being… off." I got it out.

Inhale.

I led him into the kitchen, his face had once again dropped the smile. We sat opposite each other at the small table. Exhale, I reminded myself.

As I imagined him to, Naruto looked me in the eyes, concerned. "Worst news first." He decided after a short silence.

_Spit it out. Spit it out. Spit it out. Spit it out. _"I'm going to die." I said in a rush.

Breath filled my lungs naturally again and I felt so relieved, in a completely selfish way, for as I had almost laughed with happiness at getting the burden off my chest, Naruto's face had contorted in devastation. "What?" he whispered his voice suddenly hoarse with horrified sadness.

Relapse. Inhale. Exhale.

"It's my fault, I was stupid and fell for a trap and I got drugged… and it's just… killing me." I babbled lightly.

Naruto, if his face was any hint, did not absorb any of this information beyond the 'dying' part. "No." he uttered the word, helplessly. I looked at him with the 'yes' in my eyes, feeling guilty. "No." he repeated, defiantly shaking his head.

"I'm sorry." I muttered. What else could I say?

"No!" He yelled this time, standing up so forcefully that his chair fell to the ground with a dull crash. Inhale. Exhale. I continued to stare at my lap in shame, unable to witness the look on his face that _I_ had caused him. In a sad attempt to distract myself I began to fidget under his gaze. There was silence for several minutes.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, I'm so sorry." I whispered.

"No…" He whispered back. I looked up and saw him, still standing, shaking all over, his head hung uselessly. "You don't get to apologize for dying, Sakura-chan. You just don't, okay?" He asked, still staring at the floor.

"I wasn't apologizing for dying, Naruto." I answered honestly. I stood and walked over to his still quivering form. He looked at me when I stood in front of him and put my hands on his arms. His clear blue eyes were clouded by smoldering devastation. "Remember, there's bad news too." The horror touched back into his eyes, swimming with the pain and I forced myself to watch it happen.

"What's the bad news, then?" He asked desperately.

"I'm in love with you." I admitted, and even listening to myself it sounded as if I'd just confessed to murder. I might as well have ripped his heart out anyway.


	8. The Good, the Bad, and the Lovely

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 8**

**The Good, the Bad, and the Lovely**

I wasn't hoping for a movie scenario or anything. I didn't think Naruto would suddenly seize me and we'd share a corny and cliché kiss. No, I did not expect that which is good because he didn't. He did shock me all the same however. He grabbed my shoulders for support, quaking as he laughed through fat tears. I'd never seen Naruto cry, normally a guy crying is a major turn off to me but I would make an exception for him. Through these big, fat tears he laughed. His voice cracked, he hiccupped, and he shook but he still laughed hysterically.

Finally, with me gaping at him in disbelief, he calmed down, wiped his tears, looked at me and smiled with his puffy red eyes. "You _love _me? _Now?_ You figure this out _now?_" He asked incredulously.

I started at him for a moment before my heart restarted in my chest. "Yes…" I said, unsure, not of my answer, but of him. Naruto is still so much stronger than me.

He laughed at my face, which I was sure looked puzzled and comical. "Now she realizes!" He shouted to himself and the ceiling. He focused back on me. "You're so _slow_. You're supposed to be the _smart_ one!" He accused.

"Shut up!" I said to him in a mock angry voice.

We both laughed and afterwards Naruto fixed me with a happy gaze. "I love you too, Sakura-chan." He said, smiling widely.

"Naruto…" I said tenderly. "I'm going to-" I was about to remind him when he followed with this:

"I know. That just means we better make the best of what time we have, right?" He asked. The pain was there, hiding deep in his eyes in an obscure corner but the rest of the orbs were filled with happiness and for now we would ignore the obscure corner.

Taking the initiative, I latched onto his collar, and clamped my mouth onto his.

There was no tongue action or anything, just a regular kiss. I let go of his collar after a few seconds and took a step back. "That was a cliché." I said.

I don't think he even heard me. He was still frozen. Then, as if a light bulb went off over his head his eyes snapped to full attention and fell upon me. The intensity of his gaze made me feel extremely self-conscious for a minute. Had I done something wrong? He squinted at me as if trying to figure out a problem and then the expression cleared away just as suddenly as if he had found the answer. He smiled, big and pretty, "Oh, _that _cliché." He said.

He stepped towards me, closing the gap I had formed and I got a good look at him. Naruto's height always seemed to surprise me when he stood in front of me so close. For all of his childish actions he had a fully grown body. He had also developed muscles that, though thin and wiry, gave him a rugged appearance. His blue eyes that danced with mischief were a bit clouded at the moment and it diminished they're innocent effect for the staggering impression of one whom is troubled deeply. His blond hair was soft and inviting, every strand possessing a perfect yellow hue. The veins in his neck stood out a little more in his neck and I realized he was holding his breath.

Just as I noticed this he let the air out in a _woosh!_ It billowed the hair out of my face. When I recovered from the sudden gust and I looked back up at Naruto I was met with a spontaneous pair of warm pink lips. Heat rose to my face. His lips were clumsy and needy and within seconds I was kissing back with just as much passion. A warm hand rose to my face, grasping the side of my face delicately while his other hand burned a hole in the small of my back. I raised my arms and put them around his neck, my fingers becoming laced and lost within his hair. I arched into him and his tongue slipped out to glide across my lower lip. I parted my lips and the kiss deepened.

The kiss was desperate and rushed for a reason: we only had so much time left to us. We didn't have forever or the option of growing old, we lacked the luxury of waiting, and we knew all of this. So as we kissed we cried. Salty tears ran into our parted mouths but we ignored them. Sadness and love were emotions that we didn't have enough time to separate so they ran into each other and overlapped.

Eventually the kiss broke as the need for oxygen became too much. Overwhelmed by my swirling head I collapsed against the wall and slid to the floor, breathing deeply, wiping the tears away from my eyes with the palms of my hands. Once recovered, I looked back to Naruto who still stood hovering over me. I smiled happily at him and his face immediately split into a large smile of his own. "Want to go get some ramen?" I asked him.

His smile grew and he nodded. "Sure," he said in a happy yet still solemn voice. He held out his hand and I took it. He pulled me up and hand-in-hand we shared a blissful walk to the ramen bar. A small part of my mind registered the stares people were giving us, the once-normal-now-crazy-girl holding hands with Naruto Uzumaki? What could have brought this on? At the ramen bar we were met by someone we actually knew: Kakashi.

He must have sensed us for as soon as we walked into the restaurant he turned to look at us. His visible eye immediately flickered to our intertwined fingers where the eye widened briefly before he flicked back to our faces. His eye closed from the wide smile he was giving. "Well, well, well, what's this now?" He asked.

I flushed and Naruto answered before I could think of a response. "We're dating!" He declared happily, jabbing the thumb of his free hand into his puffed-out chest. I giggled at how… Naruto of him it sounded. He winked at my amused expression.

"Congratulations!" The ramen bar owner cheered as he came around the counter. He walked up to Naruto who broke our hand holding to shake his hand. "I'm sure you two will live a long and happy life together!" He said smiling.

"Father! Just because they're dating doesn't mean they're getting married! You're embarrassing them!" The ramen owner's daughter burst out and her sudden appearance made the owner turn around to look at her. This was a good thing or he would have seen how Naruto and I had suddenly changed our 'happy new couple' expressions to a 'kicked puppies with cancer' look. 'Long and happy life' wasn't exactly an option, new was it? Kakashi seemed to have caught it though and, as the ramen bar owner and his daughter verbally quarreled, Kakashi stood and approached us.

"So," he began, his voice sounded light even though his eyes were serious and hard. "Are you going to tell me what's really going on or am I going to have to beat the answers out of you?" He asked mischievously but the hint at a dangerous threat was laced into the undertones.

Naruto returned his hand to mine and squeezed my fingers in a comforting way. He looked Kakashi directly in the eyes and then his face fell in a 'you're really mean' expression. "You don't think Sakura-chan would date me, do you?" He said. It was comical and almost believable.

Kakashi raised a curious eye brow and the shadow of a smirk played across his mask. He shifted his focus to me and his eyes beckoned me to answer him and tell him what was occurring. "I love Naruto!" I said firmly to him, breaking the tension that had grown so suddenly that Kakashi actually fell flat on his face from my suddenness.

He quickly recovered and righted himself. "To think my once cute little students now throw around words like 'love'…" He mumbled to himself, rubbing his head. "Do you even _plan_ on telling me?" He asked.

"Of course I do, but I wanted Naruto to know first." I said. "However, it's not exactly something we'd go around discussing on the street."

"How about we pay a visit to the Hokage, then?" He asked. When I didn't protest he took it as a 'yes'. Quickly, he paid the ramen bar owner and returned to us.

We all nodded to each other and took to the rooftops, heading for the Hokage Tower.

Looking back, I wish I had taken the ramen.

.-.o.x.0.X.0.x.o.-.

_First authors note of this entire story: IF TWENTY EIGHT PEOPLE HAVE THIS STORY ON ALERTS, THEN PLEASE, MORE THAN FIVE PEOPLE REVIEW!!! To those who do review, I appreciate it, but it's pretty discouraging to work so hard on these past couple chapters and be met with silence…_


	9. The Begining of the End

_Second A/N: TWENTY-TWO REVIEWS! HAHA, WAS THAT SO HARD? Thanks!! I'm awarding with a very eventful chapter. Sorry it took so long, ff wouldn't let me update. Reviews are requested once more!_

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 9**

**The Beginning of the End**

We arrived at the Hokage Tower in only a short time and the ANBU guards standing to attention in front of Tsunade's office were playing Go Fish. Upon our arrival one of them, in the middle of passing a card to the other, looked up at us curiously. Seeing our serious faces and sensing how nervous I was he decided to inform us. "She's pretty busy at the moment." He said. I sent him a condescending look that said 'Do you even _know_ who I am? It's mid afternoon, she's probably just buzzed right now.' He flinched under the scrutiny and scooted over so we could pass him to enter the office.

Kakashi, who seemed very distant at the moment based on the hard look in his visible eye, stepped in front of Naruto and me so as to open the door for us. I nodded my thank you and shuffled guiltily into the room. Naruto, seeing my grim expression as he followed behind me, seized my hand once more and I squeezed his fingers this time. I noticed him flinch slightly from the intense grip out of the corner of my eye so I loosened my grip.

Tsunade was staring intently at a medium sized scroll. She didn't seem to actually be reading it, though, just staring, as if she could simply not make sense of what was written within it. Hearing us enter she looked up, flustered and with tired eyes. Her eyes fell on mine and the sleepiness in her face grew ten-fold. I winced from the stab of guilt I felt and she quickly, not to mention messily, shoved the scroll off of her desk and scrambled to shove the other few contents in front of her into drawers at random.

"Hello…" She greeted nervously.

I gulped down some air and squeezed Naruto's fingers again with my inhuman strength, this time ignoring his wince of pain. "I told Naruto!" I announced desperately.

Tsunade started and looked at me in shock. Then, immediately, her eyes flew to our hands, cupped around one (well, actually me holding Naruto's hand in a death grip). Her eyes widened at the sight and it took her a minute to drag her eyes back up to our faces. She looked at me, lost.

"Can you explain it to Kakashi, though?" I asked her. I shrunk in on myself when her look of shock grew. How could I so shamelessly ask for this? I was just tearing her apart.

Tsunade bowed her head and the next thirty minutes were filled with her voice, slightly shaking, conveying the whole story with the scientific and medical aspects. Kakashi bore it stoically. When she finally finished in a voice so calm, if not a little bit high, asked her: "And who's looking for the attackers?"

Tsunade looked at him in shock, her eyes watery. "No one. No one knows so we can't raise the level of the mission to have high ranking ninja after them." She explained.

"Wait, _what_?" I cut in, shocked.

"Well, they're not going to go after these guys for no reason, what are we supposed to tell them?" Tsunade asked.

"You _lie!_ You're the Hokage, you're allowed to lie! Need-to-know basis! C'mon, give me _SOMETHING_!"

"Sakura, a randomly missing ANBU team will cause others to ask questions, you know! We can't lie to _everyone_."

"Fine, then we'll tell everyone the truth!" I yelled back without thinking the words through. Naruto's head swung in my direction, his face shocked. I had yelled it because from the outside it seemed logical but to me… it seemed more like a death sentence come early. If everyone knew then any hope of living out the rest of my days normally would be gone in a flash. If everyone knew it would be as if I was living at my own funeral, day after miserable day, until I died. I looked, once more, to my hand within Naruto's. Looks like 'normal' had already been lost…

I had to face it, nothing was the same anymore and nothing ever could be because I had changed, I wore less pink, I had told Naruto, now Kakashi, and everything was just _different_.

"Do you even realize what you're saying?!" Tsunade demanded.

Still staring down at our hands I nodded mutely. With the simple movement I sealed my fate. By the morning several groups of ANBU had been sent on the hunt.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

Afterwards, Kakashi disappeared quickly on orders to fetch some of the ANBU Tsunade wanted to set out. One of them was a member of the Hyuuga family, one of the first to be informed. He told Hinata's father who told Hinata, who told Neji, who told Tenten, who decided it was better to keep the news from Lee, whom was on a mission at the time, but accidentally let it slip in a fit of suddenly-onset depression to Ino and Ino told _everyone_.

I hadn't planned it as it had gone but going to Naruto's instead of returning home had definitely been the better choice. By sun down flocks of ninja were running past Naruto's apartment, oblivious to me watching them from the window, and heading to my house. Of course they had been met with silence and within fear and panic's grasp they had stealthily broken down my door and searched my house. The only signs of entrance were the busted door, muddy footprints all over the house, and overturned knick-knacks, all of which I saw the following day.

I didn't blame anyone for what had happened to my house, and I didn't blame Ino for telling everyone in Konoha. I didn't blame Naruto for bordering on clingy nor did I blame Kakashi for being extra nice. I didn't blame Lee for all the flowers he sent which only made me feel like I was receiving them in advance of my burial where they would then be laid in front of my tomb stone. I didn't blame anyone for their sideways glance, their Tupperware meals and casseroles, and all the free hugs. Yet, though it all, I did blame myself.

Every hug would send my insides crumbling with guilt, every meal made me sick with fear of it being my last and it would end up in the toilet basin fifteen minutes later, and every night, most spent at Naruto's house, would make me wish I'd never gone down that ally.

Surprisingly, at first, everyone knowing made everything easier. No more fake smiles and senseless babbling on my part. On the outside it got louder but inside my head it was strangely quiet. The easiest way to put it is to say that my guilt, though always present in my gut, also had a voice that was like subliminal advertising. You didn't hear or notice it there but, without consent, some part of your brain registered what it was saying. Mine had been whispering '_tell them_' and after I had there was nothing more for it to say and, briefly, it disappeared.

Many of the people I knew, said hi to in passing within the village, maybe had a mission with, shared a drink, or had been sort-of friends with became much more present in my life, squeezing themselves into some sort of new social circle that was growing around me. I enjoyed their company, I really did, but I wasn't happy about it. The closer people got to me the closer I got to them and the worse I felt. The more precious a person was to me the harder it was to cope with the oncoming reality. I went along with it for awhile until The Voice returned, whispering '_you're poison_'.

I started dodging them subtly, attaching myself to Naruto more and Naruto alone. I believed The Voice because it was right; I was poison that ate away at their smiles and their cheery lives with my discouraging future. I was walking around with the grim reaper always looming over me. Some people avoided me for it, as if I were contagious or something. Some people just didn't know how to deal with it and stayed away while others just ignored the reality and carried on as normal around me.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

I was hardly awake, something was buzzing in my ear and keeping me away from sweet unconsciousness but I remember, deep in the night, that, for a time, Naruto had left my side and didn't return for what felt like _hours_.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

"Sakura!" Ino squealed happily, immediately meeting me at the door of her families flower shop with one of the hugs that had only started being given after she'd heard the news.

"Hey," I said back, quieter than her, returning the hug with one arm, my other hand currently locked in Naruto's as it always was nowadays.

"Ah, what can I do for you?" She asked, letting go of me and steeping back to smile at each of us in turn. The smiles were also new, especially to Naruto who used to completely annoy her which she returned with cold indifference.

"It's our sixth anniversary!" Naruto proclaimed happily, smiling big. No one felt it was right to point out that we had an anniversary every day. With life as it was, well, with my life as it was, a day had to equal a year's worth of experiences or more if possible. Some people found it cute in a sad way and I was one of them. It was like the twelve days of Christmas, everyday he would get something new in the number of the anniversary. Today: "Six roses please!" Naruto said.

"Half a dozen, coming right up." Ino said smiling, turning to retrieve them.

"But…" Naruto began and Ino turned to look at him, "I want six." He finished in a kicked-puppy voice.

I burst out laughing and only laughed harder when Naruto looked at me, totally confused. "Half a dozen _is_ six, Naruto!" I told him after I'd calmed down enough. His look of magical discovery started me back laughing though.

This was an example of one of the things I loved most about Naruto, he knew everything but nothing about his personality (and certainly nothing about his stupidity) had changed. As Ino muttered about how much of an idiot he was as she went to collecting the best pink roses available I kept laughing, marveling at this unique trait of Naruto's that no one I knew seemed to poses.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

That night I slept on Naruto's bed in his apartment while he had dragged the couch into the room and slept on it. We didn't sleep in the same bed, yes. I knew I was running out of time but I wasn't worried by trivial matters like 'I don't want to die a virgin', all I wanted was to be blissfully happy and so far the topic of going 'all the way' had been skillfully avoided. First and second base, definitely something we'd been rushing into in the beginning and we'd toned it down a bit so as to prevent all of our friends from puking as often as they used to at our fluffy moments in the ramen bar.

Down the street from Naruto's apartment was this really fancy business building that was totally out of place on this side of town but land was cheep over here and they liked going all out. Because the building was so well maintained it actually had a sprinkler system that had to work automatically because, every morning, at 1AM sharp it would go off and the sound of splashing water would carry easily into the room.

If I wasn't already awake, it would wake me up and it also woke Naruto up. This was the second night in a row that he had done this and I focused on pretending I was asleep by breathing deeply and evenly and watching him through my eyelashes. He stood up and kissed me on the forehead softly and I resisted the small flush that almost rose to my cheeks from how gentle he was to me. He then grabbed his orange jacket and left the room, his bare feet padding across the wooden floor. A few seconds later I heard him stuffing his feet into his sandals and then the front door opening and closing slowly which only served to make it creak louder.

Unlike the night before, when I had been too tired to do anything, this time I followed him, utilizing all of the ninja stealth I was been sure I'd forgotten months ago. I slipped out the window and used chakra to shimmy down the building. I then stuck to shadows and back streets, following his chakra signature. I don't know what I'd been expecting, maybe the Hokage tower, or the ramen bar, or a prostitution center but it sure wasn't what I got.

Naruto had led me to the memorial stone for the nin who had lost their lives fighting for the village; Kakashi was waiting for him there a large bottle of sake standing next to his left leg. Moonlight poured over the trees, casting Kakashi's face into shadows and his silver hair and the reflection of his headband were all I could see as he turned towards Naruto, slowly as though he had already started the bottle.

"Hey." Kakashi said.

"Hey." Naruto answered sounding just as drained and depressed.

"How is she doing?"

"She's getting there."

The hollowness of the voice that had come from Naruto's mouth hung in the air, haunting for a few minutes before it finally got to work on suffocating me with guilt. He'd fooled me with that happy smile and all the damn hand holding and make-out sessions. The voice was just as hopeless as I felt and it was absolutely heartbreaking as I realized that the one and only good thing I got up for in the morning was miserable because of me.

I turned tail and bolted from the scene, knowing neither would see me. Once far enough away I slowed to a normal pace, letting the pain crush me. It destroyed me and caused me to sway drunkenly on the way back to Naruto's. Once I finally made it back to the apartment and had dragged myself up the stairs like a rag doll I flopped myself on the floor, sprawled spread eagle, and listened to the black blood churn rather loudly within me.

_It's never done that before…_ I thought as I listened to the swirling that vaguely reminded me of churning clouds before a major storm and lay in wait for Naruto to return, too weighed down by the churning to do much else. Eventually, disturbed by the sound, I migrated myself to the bedroom in a dragging fashion

.-.o.x.0.X.0.x.o.-.

I sat expectantly on the bed, my legs tucked beneath me. I couldn't get back to sleep and I was too anxious to just lie under the covers and fake it. My fingers twisted, squeezed, and pulled one another restlessly in my lap and every few seconds I would sigh deeply, closing my eyes in concentration on what I needed to do. However, what I needed to do was not even clear to me. I couldn't let things go on as they were, it was simply unfair to everyone but now that I was already with Naruto and everyone knew I felt trapped, like I was already being pulled along by the current, screaming my farewells to the surface world even as I was drowning, shamelessly asking for happiness before my death.

I tried to distract myself by thinking about random things like the comparison between shrimp and chicken ramen. The instant shrimp kind was a total failure and tasted identical to the instant chicken kind that had come out before it. However, it was much better at the ramen bar. Who knew all those fried noodles and MSG could be so delicious?

These kinds of random things were what had become my occupation through the nights recently. I still hadn't always slept well, developing random and odd sleeping hours which occurred whenever I was too tired to try and remain awake. Dreams were filled with nightmares and the moments between them were filled with purposefully distracting rambles such as the one about ramen.

Naruto's bed faced the dresser on which a couple photographs were placed. In the gloom of the early morning I couldn't make out each one individually but in the glass of one frame I saw my reflection. I had changed so much. My hair had become silky and healthy, now bouncy just below my shoulders. The dark circles, even the ones from before this all started, had disappeared. I ate more food and lost more weight, dropping below the weight I had held prior to the attack. My skin glowed, my body had developed the prefect, subtle amount of toned muscle, and I had become much more beautiful due to the drug's effect. To be frank, it was revolting.

Like just about every other girl on the face of the earth, I'd always known that I wanted to be prettier and in what areas. I had gotten that wish in spade but at such a horrible price. People who didn't know me, who didn't know anything, stared at me on the streets, the braver sending catcalls and whistles. To shut them up I would steadily meet there gaze. My eyes had also changed in a completely different way, all a person had to do was look me in the eyes and they would downcast their eyes, falling quiet, looking ashamed. It wasn't as if my eyes held some hidden meaning or as if I could use telepathy or anything of that sort, it was really that if you had ever seen the eyes of a dead animal they were exactly the same as mine, the detail refined and concentrated by death.

Now, I tried not to look in peoples' eyes. I threw my gaze away from the picture frame, staring instead at the off-white walls that hadn't always been described with the 'off-' part. I started counting all the cracks, then recounting to make sure I got it right to make sure I got it right. I was positive there were either 17 or 18 or 20 cracks when I heard the front door creak open then shut as Naruto returned. He took off his sandals and they fell to the floor with dull thuds, one after another.

My mouth went dry when he entered the room, his face slightly flushed from the drink, his eyes half lidded, his eyes a bit puffy, and his stance utterly hopeless. When he saw that I was awake (and staring at him) his eyes widened in surprise and he stood up straight but the glazed and exhausted look did not leave his eyes.

I felt the tears prick slowly into my eyes as I looked at him. "I'm sorry," I said. My voice cracked despite my best efforts.

"I told you, you don't get to apologize." Naruto replied firmly, sitting on the bed in front of me, and I smelled the sake on his breath.

I shook my head at him. "I'm so selfish." I told him.

"No," he said. "No, you're not, Sakura-chan, of course you're not." He cupped my cheek softly while still strong enough to make me have to look at him in the eyes. His murky depths of blue danced as they searched my face, darting all over the place.

I involuntarily pressed my cheek closer to his entirely too warm hand. "I shouldn't have told you." I admitted but this seemed to make him snap.

In a split second I was on my back on the bed and Naruto was hovering over me, looking at me defiantly. "Don't say that, don't _ever_ say that." He hissed.

I refused to take it back though and his anger grew, he pressed in closer, repeating the words. He whispered _I love you_s and _I'll never let you go_s. I stared into his eyes pleadingly, pleading for what, I do not know, and suddenly is lips were on mine.

Sake had stained his lips and I tasted it uncaringly, kissing back without restraint. Kissing Naruto had become a personal drug to me. In play it had amazing effects that seemed to nullify the whole world and amplify everything around me into sharp concentration while still blurring all the lines of moral judgment. Of course it was addictive and like all other illegal drugs I felt horribly afterwards yet always came back for more, no matter the consequences.

This time I asked for entrance first, running my tongue along his lower lip. He opened easily and our tongues did battle. They danced and hands traveled and in the end I had gotten Naruto's shirt off. We lay there for a while and he fell asleep easily due to the sake in his system.

.-.o.x.0.X.0.x.o.-.

I woke up early and decided to make breakfast. A real breakfast was the goal since I was on a bit of a ramen burnout. I left the shirtless (and attractive) Naruto in bed and scrounged what ingredients I could in the kitchen. All I found were some bagels. I searched around for a knife but all I could find was a large cleaver.

No, before you ask, I have no idea in hell why Naruto had a cleaver in his kitchen, he just did. All I had were kunai and shuriken and those certainly would do even worse at cutting the bagel and so I tried to use the cleaver. Standing over the sink (so the crumbs would go down the drain) I _tried_ cutting the dough with the large cleaver.

I became distracted when Naruto ambled in lazily, rubbing his eyes. "Sakura-chan, where'd my shirt go?" He asked sleepily. Then his eyes widened when his saw me standing there in the bright sunlight of the morning, cutting a bagel with a meat cleaver.

"What?" I asked, stopping the gentle back and forth motion I was doing with the cleaver to cut the bagel as smoothly as possible. "It's the only knife I could find." I explained.

He continued to stare, not answering me for a minute. "Look down." He finally said.

I did as bid and was shocked to say the very least. The blade of the cleaver was bent around my pinky finger as if it were molded there. I dislodged my finger from the ruined knife and examined my pinky, shocked. Little black lines had become visible in the base of my nail, the skin of my pinky darker but, otherwise, it was an unscathed, completely normal pinky. I hit it against the counter, testing it. There was a loud thud when they collided but I felt nothing in my pinky, as if it were really numb.

I touched it with my other hand and found it to be cold as ice.

I looked up hurriedly at Naruto who was still staring at his meat cleaver in total disbelief.

"It's started." I said.


	10. Borderline

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 10**

**Borderline**

We stayed in the house all day. I refused to let him take me to the hospital. Sometimes we would lay down and pretend to be asleep so we wouldn't be yelled at for where are hands landed. Sometimes I would cry, sometimes he would zone out entirely. I took a shower then he did then we would make out. It was just a really random, _really_ emotional day.

By the afternoon we were running out of distractions other than each other so lunch time found us with me straddling Naruto's waist, our lips glued, and our hands going rogue. He had one hand up my shirt, rubbing soft circles on my back, and the other grabbing my butt through my shorts. My hand was lost, once more, in his hair while the other was liberally tracing the muscles of his stomach. It was probably the worst time for Sai to break in. Yet, he did it anyway.

"So, the rumors _were _true." He said, leaning against the side of the open window.

I threw a meat cleaver at Sai's head but, sadly, he caught it just before impact.

_**Soooo… closeeee…**_

_If only it'd hit him, then I could die happily._

"How rude. I come to visit my dying teammate and her boyfriend out of the kindness of my heart and she throws a… _is this a meat cleaver?_"

"Why's everyone picking on my cleaver?! I do eat meat sometimes!" Naruto yelled in frustration when I finally got off of him.

"Whatever, I was just dropping by. See ya." Sai said, dropping out of the window and out of sight.

"That was random." I stated, staring at where Sai had just disappeared from, running a hand through my hair. Until I felt a lump. My hand froze and my finger traced the lump. It wasn't actually a lump, it was just this really cold, really hard, really numb spot just behind my ear. "Fuck!" I said. It was the same as my pinky.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Erm…" I began, looking at that worried face of his, "Nothing, just, you know, forgot my pinky was numb and it made me mad all over again." I finished lamely.

"Sakura…" He looked at me reproachfully, knowing I was lying.

I pleaded with him using only my eyes, begging him not to make me say anything. After a minute or two he sighed, giving in and we returned to our make-out session, this time nailing a blanket over the window using kunai.

"I love you, Naruto."

"I love you too."

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

Little things began to come back to me. I was so happy when I was surrounded by Naruto, just his very presence could make me happier. Thus, things started coming back to me.

I talked less, not that I got quiet, but I didn't ramble on meaninglessly like I had before telling him. I'd also been obsessed with noise before but now, as long as Naruto was around I didn't need it. Naruto was the only distraction I needed from reality. He would smile happily just for me.

I knew that this was tearing him apart from the inside, though. He continued to sneak out and come back drunk. I never mentioned it or brought it up, though, because I didn't want him to worry about me knowing. Usually, when he was gone, I'd slip back to the insomnia and the need for noise, humming to myself for hours in the morning.

I would often hate myself for telling him when he was gone, but when he returned, and looked at me with those eyes, I would just melt and be happy he knew and still loved me. More importantly, he _let_ himself love me, making me think that he loved me enough that he was willing to get hurt, because, we both knew, he was going to be hurt when I was gone.

I didn't really like to think beyond that though. I didn't want to know what was going to happen when I was gone. I knew it was selfish, but I didn't like the idea of everything being so unaffected by my death. It would have been expected, nothing to be surprised about. For some of the people I knew, I might as well have died already, because they had already started to mourn. It's depressing, knowing that your death will cause hardly a ripple to all of the people in your life. Konoha would go on as usual, unaffected as a whole, when I was gone.

I might have been the heroine of my own story but that didn't mean the supporting characters saw it the same way. I was just one of their friends who was sick.

That was the worst part. All anybody thought was that I was going to die because I was sick. They'd heard the story and all, but no one _knew_ how agonizing the pain was. I suffered every day, mentally and physically. All I had to do was look at Naruto's face to feel like I might break down, resulting with me drowning in my feelings for him, throwing myself at him at every occasion, keeping the tears locked inside.

Then there was the physical pain. At first I hadn't noticed it but when the solidification from the black blood spread past my fingers, it began to hurt. It wasn't pins and needles, like normal numbness, no, because that would have been much better. This was like ice stabbing at you from the inside. I was wondering about it the other day when I figured it out.

The nerves all over your body are shaped similar to a squashed spider, little legs sticking out everywhere. What was happening was that the black blood was clumping the nerves of my arm together, making large nerve clusters, hence the numbness, then it would solidify around the nerve clusters, turning them to the same consistency as ice (hence the rock hard feeling), including the legs, still sticking out, stabbing my insides.

That was my hypothesis, at least. As it turns out, they cropped up on their own, those nerve clusters. The first one was in my pinky, the next one I discovered was behind my right ear, and the last was on my ankle (I found it during a shower). From there, they would spread.

Pinky to hand to arm.

Ankle to foot to lower leg.

The one behind my ear I couldn't exactly track that well, though, due to the wicked headaches and my hair.

I didn't tell Naruto about them, weighed down by my guilt that surfaced when he was absent, and instead suffered in silence. Then, about a week later it all changed to something I couldn't handle alone.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

"Naruto, you seriously have to get rid of this meat cleaver." I told him from the kitchen, tracing the indent from my pinky with my index finger, which was now also numb and unable to be cut by the blade of the cleaver.

"But it's the only normal knife I have!" He whined, coming into the kitchen, shirtless with a towel around his neck after his shower. I raked my eyes over his muscles greedily.

_**Yum.**_

_Uh-huh._

"Wait!" I snapped out of it, tearing my eyes off his abs. "You call this a _normal_ knife?!"

"Better than a kunai, right?" he asked, shrugging.

"You're really something, you know that?" I asked him.

"Well, I must be." He answered, coming farther into the kitchen, until he stood beside me, watching my examination of his cleaver.

"And why do you say that?"

"Because. I tricked a girl into falling for me when I'm so obviously not on her level." He answered, taking the cleaver, from me, leaning into my side closer.

"And what girl is this?" I asked, sounding jealous as his head dipped into my neck.

"You." He whispered, kissing my neck, which I could still feel, sending shivers down my side.

I felt a headache coming on, a dull throbbing behind my eyes and below my skull. I pushed the feeling aside. "I think you have it the wrong way around, Naruto." I told him, sighing. He was just too good to me.

"You're wrong." He said, continuing to kiss my neck up and down, his hand coming forward to grab my hip and twist me towards him, his other snaking around my head.

I don't know where it would have led or what would have happened if his other hand hadn't snaked around my neck. I don't know if we would have had sex that day if he hadn't found a cold spot beneath my hair. I don't know what our lives would have been like if he hadn't inquired about the cold, hard, numb area on the back of my scalp. I don't know if we would have been happy if he hadn't pushed it curiously, if he hadn't decided to test it. I don't know why the blood took that moment to lurch and attack my brain in that moment, maybe just to spite Naruto and me who were just oh-so-happy a moment before.

I don't know if I would have lived a long and happy life with Naruto if I hadn't collapsed right there on the floor, unable to move on my own, as, slowly, everything went numb.

-end chapter-

_A/N: There is more to this story. Make of that what you will. Trust me, no one expects what's going to happen next. Sorry it was short, just a transition chappy. And don't yell at me, I never _promised_ a happy story!_


	11. Slipping

**bookCry For Me**

**Chapter 11**

**Slipping**

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

-third person p.o.v.-

To him, she looked like an angel. Her pink hair may have been mussed. Her body may have been dressed in a forget-me-not blue hospital gown. And, maybe, just maybe, she looked like total shit but, all aside, the steady rise and fall of her chest, up and down with each breath, was enough to make him look on tenderly at her, her beauty unmatched in his eyes.

He sat on the bed side chair, refusing to leave despite the doctor's order, and tried to match her breathing, anything to make him feel closer to her. No one may have been quite sure when or if she was going to wake up. No one may have been positive what was happening. And, maybe, just maybe, this was the gust of wind threatening to blow down the house of cards he'd spent his life acquiring but, all aside, Naruto didn't care because all he needed to be certain was that Sakura was alive, that she was breathing, that the house of cards stood tall, and that she loved him, and he would be fine.

The heart monitor rang out the tune of her heart, signaling that the wind had not yet won, and there was no sign of defeat, and he tried to make his heart beat in time with hers. It'd been only a few hours since she'd collapsed in his apartment, but it felt like it had been forever. He consoled himself by always listening to the heart monitor as the fear turned to fire and churned in his stomach.

He was distantly aware of his growing agitation towards the miscellaneous doctors who filtered in and out, occasionally telling him to leave as they checked Sakura's vitals. He only distantly felt Kyuubi churning in his stomach, trying to take advantage of this moment of weakness. He distantly heard himself answer doctors' questions with anger and bitter sarcasm. He held in sharp contrast the view of Sakura, her chest rising and falling, for that was all he needed, the rest could wait.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

-flashback-

_Tsunade's hands lingered over Sakura's temples, her face concentrated and stern. He hands flared, suddenly immersed in her chakra as Tsunade closed her eyes. A few minutes later her eyes opened again, the chakra fading, her face contorting to one of hopelessness._

"_The black blood has attacked her brain. I don't know why but it seems to have locked on to two specific parts of her brain." She reported, facing her special team of doctors and Naruto who refused to leave, having just brought Sakura in minutes ago. "The first part of the brain it's attacked is her cerebellum." She continued professionally until she saw Naruto's 'I'm gonna pretend I understand' face._

_Tsunade sighed deeply, resisting a vein pop. "The cerebellum is located on the underside of your brain, Naruto, and it controls your sensory perception and coordination. That's probably why she collapsed." She explained to him. "The other part the black blood seems to have been the frontal lobe, which controls a person's typical personality, their reasoning skills, conscious and long-term memories." She stated fully this time for Naruto's benefit. "These are extremely important areas of the brain, therefore we have no idea how Sakura will react when she wakes up. She may not be able to walk, she may not seem like herself, and she may have memory problems."_

-end flashback-

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

There! There it was! It was just a flicker, but it _was_ there! Just a bit! Hope bloomed in the boy's stomach, him leaping off his bed side chair, right up to her face cushioned on the hospital pillow.

"Granny Tsunade! Get Granny Tsunade!" He yelled to a doctor filling past who looked startled for a minute before rushing off to do as asked.

Naruto focused back on Sakura's face. He could have sworn her eyelid had flickered just a moment before. Just a bit, just a facial muscle process, a reaction of tendons, the whole charade similar to a quick wince, as if smelling something back, before returning to an impassive mask. But he had _seen_ it!

"C'mon, Sakura, wake uppppp!" He urged, smiling eagerly, love flaring back to life in his eyes as he watched her.

Another flicker/wince, this one longer and more pronounced.

"Yessss!" Naruto cheered, leaping up and down as if this had been equivalent to him becoming Hokage. "Go, Sakura!" he encouraged.

Her lips parted, just a little bit and for a while, nothing came out, until, thick and heavy "shut…up… Naruto…" she said.

Impossible, we know, but somehow, Naruto's happiness exploded ten-fold.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

-Sakura's p.o.v.-

The first thing I can recall is a feeling of heavy helplessness, as if I was swimming in tar. From the surface I heard distant yelling and I just knew it was directed at me. _What was going on?_ I kicked harder, towards the surface and finally recognized the voice as Naruto's. _Naruto? What's he doing here?_

I wanted to respond, something sarcastic and witty, but I wouldn't be able to do so until I reached the surface so I trudged my arms up and down and willed my exhausted legs to kick and finally made it out. My first words: _Shut up, Naruto._

Classy, eh? Yeah, I thought so. I tried to open my eyes but it took effort to break through the caked on barrier sleep had put there. _How long have I been asleep?_ My first sight: Naruto. Above him were the white fluorescents of the hospital ceiling. They were a trick, along with all the other white of the hospital, to make patients feel calm but to doctors, such as me, it was a root of worry. My head felt heavy and I tried to flex my fingers which did so grudgingly and slowly, as if they were caked by a thick, dry layer of mud in their previous position.

"Naruto, why am in the hospital?" I asked him, for I had no idea.

He looked puzzled for a moment then opened his mouth to answer but Tsunade came rushing in and forcefully knocked him right out of the way. "Sakura!" she yelled delightedly, looking at me like a proud mother.

"Tsunade-senpai? What's going on?" I asked her, for my teacher was sure to know.

She, too, got this puzzled look. "Sakura…" she began, fear seeping into her eyes, "how much do you remember?"

"About what?" I asked her. "I'm Haruno Sakura, seventeen, birthday in March, five foot seven, one hundred thirty five pounds, chunin level, blood type AB, pink hair, green eyes, and single." I reported the basic characteristics and information.

I tried to remember the last thing I could, trying to give myself a hint as to what happened that had landed me in the hospital but my memories were just a mix of the monotony of my life: eat, train, work, mission, and then, most importantly, sleep. "Why?" I asked, rather belatedly, wondering about those shocked looks on their faces.

Tsunade started, startled at my question. What was going on? She put her hand up, defensively, and said, "Nothing, nothing, you were just in a coma and we were very worried about you losing any memory." She leveled.

Coma? Was that the reason for this massive headache? I touched the base of my skull gingerly; it was hard, like it went straight to the bone instead of any flesh in between. Weird. It was also cold… double weird.

"So Naruto just came to check on me?" I asked her.

Naruto leaped off the floor ninja-like, getting back in my face. "I'm just happy that you're okay!" He told me, loud as usual, but there was something about his eyes, like he was terrified of something, and it sounded like he was more telling himself.

_**Triple… weird…**_ Inner Sakura moaned from inside my head.

"Okay…" I said, pushing Naruto's face away with a little force. "So, am I free to go home?" I asked Tsunade, still holding Naruto's face back with one arm.

"Um… sure…" she answered.

"Cool," I smiled and let Naruto's face go, he had been fighting against it with so much force that when I let go he went flying into the wall behind my bed. He then properly sunk to the floor.

Tsunade smiled sadly and handed me a bag with clothes I must have come in with. Wasn't that T-shit Naruto's? Well, I did have a few of his things at my house, stuff he forgets on missions that I grab and forget to return.

I stepped out of the bed and the hospital floor was much too cold on my bare feet. I padded my way to the bathroom, changed, and left for my home wondering:

What's up with those two?

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

-third person p.o.v.-

"So… we're going to keep it a secret from her? That she's dying?" Naruto asked for clarification, his voice void of life, from the heap he had become on the floor.

"At this point, I feel it may be the best thing for her. We can't pretend like she's not smart enough to figure out something's wrong but let's hope that's not for a long, long while." Tsunade stated, staring ahead, eyes void of life. "She was tearing herself apart. This is what's best for her." She said, carelessly, as if she forgot who she was talking to.

But he wasn't having any of it. He stood up, and placed himself right in front of her. "_I'm _what's best for her!" he yelled at her, eyes flashing red, facial scars deepening, nail lengthening, but only for a split second and it undid itself.

"Naruto…" she sighed. "Please? If not for me, for Sakura." She pleaded, thoroughly exhausted from anxiety.

He backed off a bit, hanging his head, casting his face in shadows, hiding it from the florescent lights. "Fine." He agreed, bitter, grudging, pain ever present in his voice and he didn't try to hide it.

Tsunade turned away, too ashamed to look at him. "Good. She shouldn't have anything to tip her off that she's missing a bit of memory." Tsunade reasoned, pacing heavily out of the room.

After several minutes, Naruto regained control of himself, and leapt out the window, dead set on taking out his aggression on trees.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

-Sakura's p.o.v.-

The pathway to my house is easy, simple, and familiar. I had no need to pay attention as to where I was going as my feet and carried me back to the same home for years. I wasn't even watching where I was going, just thinking _I'm heading home._

So you can imagine my surprise when my feet led me to Naruto's apartment. I looked at my feet, then glared at them. _I said HOME._

My feet gave no reply, which is good because it proved I wasn't entirely insane, just insane enough to glare at my feet.

I straightened up and forced my feet to lead me to _my_ home.

I walked up the path, which was the same as always. The front door was locked and I had no key on me, which was typical, so I fished the spare out from under the WELCOME mat, where it'd always been kept. I fit it to the lock, having to jiggle it a bit to get it in there, because, for some reason, it only went in like that, a weird thing that had been present for years now. I turned the knob, which caught in the same way it always had. I had to kick the door a bit, as I always do, to get it to open, for the frame was a bit too tight, as it had always been. And I opened the familiar door from the familiar front lawn to what should have been a familiar house.

Yet, for some reason, this looked nothing like my house.

The bleak, lovable, off white walls were painted with vibrant, loud, intoxicating colors, the rooms I could see were filled with gorgeous modern furniture, the carpets replaced with tasteful styles, same for the tiles.

I gaped at the sight. I leaned back out of the door way and looked at the plate on the right side of the front door.

127 Hokudao

So… it was my address. This _was_ my house.

I looked back at the unbelievable sight and to console myself I spoke aloud. "Have I… forgotten something?"

-end chapter-

_A/N: Sorry it took so long, everyone, but I've been studying for my midterms (which are starting on Wednesday). Hope you guys liked this one! …though it WAS a bit depressing. It's a bridge chapter, don't worry._


	12. Wake Me Up

_A/N: Sorry it took so long! The file was corrupted, and there were midterms, and I got a boyfriend, and then there was a messy break up and I've got another story under wraps andmy harddrive failed and my computer completely failed and I lost all my files and I had MAJOR writers block and I wrote the ending to this in math and, most of all, I'm sorry!_

_WARNING: Graphic murder scene in the DreamSequence. You've been warned. A reviewer asked for it a while ago and it actually works into the plot._

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 12**

**Wake Me Up**

I tried to sleep. I really did. But I couldn't. Because, every time I tried I kept having this horrible dream. Horrible!

-_DreamSequence-_

_He was vaguely recognizable; I must have seen him before, but only in passing. He possessed a face only a mother could love and cropped short hair, as if he'd had a fight with his barber. He was beefy and had large arms. He stood behind me, one arm wrapped around my waist, the other holding a kunai to my neck. There was a cool pinch as he sliced my throat, just a bit, as Naruto and Kakashi watched. I saw a man on the ground out of the corner of my eye. That man was definitely a freak of some sort, if all those gaudy rings were a hint._

_Thick, sluggish blood trickled out, as if it was lazy and didn't want to come out at all. And as soon as a full droplet had escaped my veins a cool sensation filled every vein and artery in my body, like I'd been injected with morphine. I knew of no drug or poison that could have such an instantaneous effect. Rushing from my finger tips and my toes toward my heart, the cooling effect whisked through me and when it reached my core there was something similar to a sonic boom inside of me._

_Suddenly, I was having an out of body experience. I could see my body but I wasn't in control of it. It was like watching a movie of me. My hand, lightening fast, faster than I've ever moved, snatched the kunai knife from the man and even though my finger's had twined around the blade, no blood gushed out. The man backed away from me, fear in his eyes. Naruto and Kakashi looked scared, too, through, like a sixth sense had told them to beware._

_My body threw the kunai to the ground as if it wasn't a valuable weapon. I just realized that I was wearing a pretty slinky dress and obviously had no weapons on my person. I looked at the gaudy-ring-freak guy again, who was still cowering on the dirt ground. I put two and two together and guessed that this must have been some sort of capture mission where I was the bait and the ugly beefy guy was the body guard we hadn't anticipated. I heard a howl and looked back at the fight between my body and the ugly man._

_I wish I hadn't looked._

_I was poised in a way that suggested I was totally drunk, my legs and one of my arms hanging loosely and lazily at my side, my head hung in the same fashion. By the moonlight I could see more than I wanted. My other arm was lodged in his stomach, dripping his blood into the growing puddle on the dirt. The man was also bleeding out of the corner of his mouth. His head was thrown back as the last note of his howl died away. Slowly, his head leaned forward to see the damage, my hand still lodged in his stomach._

_I could see the tears in his eyes. He choked on his breath, looking at the impossible sight. Suddenly my body leaned closer to his and my head looked up to meet his eyes. I could see my own teeth gleam as I gave a wicked smile. My head lobbed again to look down, still smiling._

_Suddenly, my hand lurched, ripping out of his stomach, gripping something bloody and no doubt important in my hands and holding it up the moonlight. The man fell, dying. I dropped the organ and it landed with a sickly _splat_ in the blood puddle._

_I held my arm up to my face, seeing the blood of the man glisten in the moonlight._

_Then, next thing I knew, I was on Kakashi's back, racing through a forest._

_-EndDreamSequence-_

After having this horrible dream three times I decided enough was enough. I was so fucking out of here. I quickly escaped my crazy-ass house and all its bright colors for the cool darkness of midnight. Normally, what I found outside 'my door' would have creeped me out but I was happy. I was happy to see Naruto, lurking outside my house, yes, but outside my house nevertheless.

He was wearing his orange pants and a black tee. His hair was more mussed than usual and he looked dead-dog tired, as if he'd been training all day. He had his arm raised halfway, as if he was getting ready to knock. I was baffled for just a moment and every fiber or my very confused being was wanting to leap into his arms but I resisted and said:

"Wow, hey, stalker."

"Hey," he replied. He was in such a daze I don't think he realized he'd just admitted to being a stalker.

"Naruto, I got a question for you." I begin casually, turning this into a small game of sorts.

"W-what?" he asks, stuttering, suddenly shell shocked and nervous.

"Do _you_ know what I forgot?" I ask in the same tone, cocking my head to the side like it's no big deal to lose a big chunk of memory randomly.

"W-what makes you think y-you forgot something?" He asked, more nervous, smiling uncertainly, not meeting my eyes.

I glanced around quickly but no one was out, all the lights on the street that I could see were out. I took the opportunity to seize his collar and haul him into my house. I slammed the door when he was fully inside and pinned him to the wall. I put on my best interrogation face.

"_What_ did I forget, Naruto?" I threatened. Yes, I'm aware it was a question but when I get interrogative, I'm very threatening.

He grimaced, like he wanted to tell me but couldn't. The look in his eyes, somewhere between torment, hope, and something I couldn't decipher, made me want to pity him. There were shadows beneath his eyes, the slight scent of sake on his breath. What had been going on?

He gulped but didn't say anything.

My interrogative face fell in defeat. I backed up a bit, hanging my head. I was desperate for answers but, at the same time, desperate to spare Naruto. He just looked so pitiful. "I'm sorry." He whispered.

"Yea, me too." I muttered but there was something in the hopelessness of his voice that sounded so familiar, something that was tugging at my heart.

"You don't get to apologize." He said in a sort of voice that sounded like they had been said many times before. My heart lurched at a familiarity I could not quite place.

There was a throbbing in my heart, whether towards his voice or words, I did not know, but it was there. The back of my head hurt. I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness but before I slipped under I saw Naruto's tortured blue eyes. He fallen face and his sunken eyes beckoned me forth and I felt a great wave of clarity come back to me.

Images started cropping into my brain.

A vase with just six roses. Ino… was giving me a hug?

Stealing a hairbrush from Neji…

Naruto's couch…

Kakashi's steely gaze…

Naruto's bed…

The unclaimed corpse of the little boy in the basement of the hospital…

Naruto's arms…

Black, slimy, liquid…

Naruto's hair, hands tangled in his hair… my hands tangled in his hair…

_A meat cleaver?!_

I stumbled away from Naruto, losing my balance quickly. I brought my hands up to grab at the side of my head because it felt like it was going to split open. I knew there was little sound as it was but suddenly I felt like I couldn't hear anything. Nothing but what sounded like a child's undying scream, growing and fading like the Doppler Effect. I couldn't tell that I was screaming bloody murder too.

Color began to drain out of the world, everything beginning to go numb slowly. Achy-breaky feeling erupted like a moan throughout my body then reached scalding pain proportions. Two strong arms wrapped around me and it took me a second to recognize them as Naruto's.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with his scent. I didn't, at the time, completely understand it, but his smell just calmed me down. The horrid feelings subsided as I leaned into his arms. My own personal security blanket.

-

_This stupid goddamn blanket is so fucking crappy! It's threadbare! But _Naruto_ gets a comfy winter set! The punk… Maybe I'll just sneak into his room and snuggle into _his_ bed. It's just too warm and inviting for me not too. Then, in the morning, I'll build up some courage and tell him the truth. Then, some day in the distant future I'll kick his ass for these fifteen or so minutes I spent freezing on this goddamn lazy excuse for a couch! Yes, this is my plan._

-

_**That was weird.**_

_Was that a flashback or something._

_**I think so, but why was it about Naruto?**_

_I… don't know…_

_**Maybe he's the key to our memories!**_

_So we are forgetting something!_

_**We must be! So if just hugging him brought a small memory back, imagine what doing MORE could do!**_

_Er… what do you mean by… 'more'?_

_**Sweetie, sit back, relax, and let me recover what we lost.**_

Without my consent, or even my proper response to my inner self, my body lurched forward, my arms wrapped around a bland head, and my lips clamped down on Naruto's. The throbbing in the back of my head now thudded like a jack hammer. My body suddenly felt lighter. My mind was filling with memories all at once and-

Oh, _God, _Naruto, who thought your tongue how to _do_ this to me?


	13. Bliss

_A/N: I'm just as shocked at an update as you guys probably are. Sorry it took so long._

_WARNING: This chapter contains a very detailed make-out scene (immediately) and a lot of innuendo. Enjoy._

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 13**

**Bliss**

Once, when I was little, I followed my parents out on one of their dates. They went to the movies so I snuck in behind them using the pathetic stealth skills I'd learned at the ninja academy thus far. They were seeing a sappy romance movie and I remember being totally disgusted at the gory kiss scene where this lady was all over this dude. I never thought I'd ever enjoy my own, extremely gory kiss scene. Yet, these things happen, don't they?

One moment we were just two people standing in my slightly drafty entrance, not even really bothering to explore the actual house. Then, a moment later, we were a man and a woman, entangled, in what felt like a sauna. Everything was hot, everything was tight, everything was suffocating, and I loved every single moment of it. Naruto's lips, soft and strong, just kept getting better. He just seemed to know exactly what to do. This was a great thing, too, because I was going on pure instinct.

All I wanted to do was get closer to him. I kept trying to bring myself closer by wrapping my hands around his head, losing my hands to his silky hair. Naruto, apparently, had the same idea as me, but he was a lot more aggressive about it. Just using his hands was not enough for him. He soon had me pinned against a wall so there was nowhere for me to go. Even though he had packed me so tightly his arm, warm, slightly sweaty, and taunt with nothing but muscle, weaseled its way around my waist, pushing the small of my back so my stomach was flush against his. His strong chest, the contours of which were clearly visible though his t-shirt, pressured mine, making my already labored breathing even more difficult to manage.

Our lips separated briefly just then, our lips just slightly apart from each others, my tongue escaping just a little bit too late from Naruto's mouth. I opened my eyes as wide as I could manage without breaking the lustful spell. His blue orbs were glazed over, half-lidded and looking at me with passion even the man from that gross movie couldn't fake.

"I remember now," I said, a little puff of heated breath came out of my lips when I said it. I let my eyes drift shut again and gave his lips a peck. "I'm in love with you." I told him.

I'd remembered. Not so much, as I still felt heavy throbbing in the back of my head, but still, I remembered a lot of Naruto, and a lot of me being in love with him. And, at that very moment, nothing else mattered, not even all the other memories I was sure I still had to remember. Naruto was my drug. An alcoholics last bottle in the hidden stash. The final means to numb the rest. The one thing in the world capable of making the rest go away. Naruto had become my addiction.

I wiggled my hips against his and his whole body shuddered, a ripple of satisfaction. A bulge in his pants was making itself known but he really didn't seem to mind as he ground back harder causing me to gasp. Then, once again, Naruto broke contact between our lips. His free hand reached up to the back of my neck to cradle my head and he began to kiss my neck gently, sending every nerve in my body a quiver. Combined with another grinding hip thrust on Naruto's part, a moan I didn't know I could make escaped my lips.

Naruto removed his hand from my neck, no longer needing it there as my head was lolling all the way back without any aid needed. It clasped my thigh and guided my leg around his waist, and, with one last agonizingly pleasurable grinding movement, fully removed my body from the floor so I was now straddling his waist while I was still pressed against the wall.

He abandoned his kissing of my neck and buried his head there and I could feel tears in his eyes. His hand moved back up to stroke my hair, which was now slightly damp with sweat. "You don't understand." He muttered, his voice muffled by the flesh of my neck but I sensed that it would be shaking otherwise. "I thought I'd lost you, Sakura. I thought, all this time, that as long as you were alive it'd be okay, because you'd always be mine, but then you forgot all about me and us and everything and I was so afraid that I'd lost you already. I'm not ready to lose you, Sakura. All I do is think about you and if you were to die now I'd be so lost."

One of my hands finally made it out of Naruto's pillow-y hair to stroke his cheek comfortingly; however, I had no idea what he was talking about. Who said anything about dying? I wanted to ask Naruto what he meant but the thought was easily driven out of my head with his next words.

It was a moment for smarmy romance books everywhere. His face emerged from my neck and he looked at me with those blue eyes beneath those fantastic eyelashes. Tear tracks were lightly visible on his face but it was still set in brilliant determination but also desperation. "I love you, Sakura. Be with me."

Warmth blossomed in my stomach at his words as icy fear poured into my veins. I was split on what to say to that. Naruto must have seen the indecision on my face, because he promptly leaned upwards, stretching his neck, and kissed my lips with such loving gentleness that I just wanted to melt. With one kiss he had made my decision for me.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

I woke up in the same exact way the woman from the movie had: In a bed, completely naked, with a man, equally naked, and a horrified expression on her face. Now, the woman in the movie had been horrified because she'd realized that she'd slept with her actual love's evil twin brother. I was horrified because I had remembered _everything_ in my sleep after last night's… er… activities.

The spell of last night's love and ignorance had worn off. Now that it was morning I'd come to the horrible realizations as reality settled in. I was nothing more than a scared little girl who was just short of dead. And the only thing I wanted to do before this untimely death, was to make sure I died without regrets and here I was, lying naked in a bed with the boy I was trying to leave as happy as possible. How in the world was Naruto going to be happy if not only the girl he loved, but the girl he was now having sex with, was dying?

Apparently, very happy indeed. Naruto woke up just minutes later to tell me he'd enjoyed last night. Also, he'd enjoyed 2am just as much, but he wanted to make sure I was completely sure that he thought 4am was the best. He also was keen on making sure I understood he loved me all three times and I was perfect and just kept getting better. It is no understatement that I blushed for at least two hours after that.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

After the blush died down, I made Naruto and myself some breakfast with the few items in my fridge that were not expired. Eggs. I slopped two servings worth onto two different plates and proceeded to the table where Naruto sat eagerly. I faltered a few times during the short distance, not because Naruto was shirtless, but because my legs were feeling extra-wobbly today. Ten 'uh-duh' points for whoever guesses why.

_**God, he's such a BEAST. Hot and totally insatiable in bed! My ideal man all wrapped up in perfect muscles and sun-kissed skin.**_

I had not yet been able to escape Inner Sakura's musings over Naruto. She also made an annoying habit of remembering the late night and early morning moments she found most interesting that often made me want to do Naruto all over again.

Sadly, far from what could be time for reminiscing of the best night of my life, I now had more pressing matters on my mind. Perhaps it was that all the memories of the past few months had just come back to me at once, but I felt like little pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place. Somewhere, in the back of my head, I was completely absorbed with fixing it all together. In the front of my mind, however, it was a different story.

Naruto was taking up the front of my mind and he was working on taking up all of it and I sure he really wanted to take up all of my body, too. He shoveled down his food like a starved man and I tipped my serving onto his plate after he finished his own.

He glanced up curiously.

"I'm not really hungry," I explained with a nonchalant wave of my hand which I was true. All the blushing made me lose my appetite and all I really wanted to do was curl up for a few more hours of shut-eye.

"Really? 'Cause I'm _starving_ after last night." He declared happily and went back to stuffing food in his mouth while I smiled and turned a violent shade of red. When he finished my food (in record time, no less), he turned to me. "How'd you remember everything, anyway?" He asked, now stacking his plate on top of mine.

"Huh? Oh, I remembered something just because I hugged you so I thought doing more might help me remember more. And it worked, because half-way through I remembered that I was in love with you." I explained.

Naruto looked devastated. "You were _using_ me?" he asked, horror-struck, but immediately started laughing and I knew he was just messing with me. "If that was you using me, please, feel free to do it more often!" I flushed deeply again. "You're blushing a lot this morning." Naruto commented.

"Yeah, well, what do you expect? You keep talking about us having sex!" I said, because it seemed like a fairly obvious point to me.

"You're embarrassed about us having sex?" he asked, cocking his head to the side in a totally adorable way.

"Of course I am! I was my first time—"

"First _three_ times." Naruto pointed out.

"Fine, first _three_ times," I said pointedly as I stood up with the dishes. Naruto stood as well and followed me into the kitchen. "Anyway, I'm just a little embarrassed because it's still new to me." A admitted, trying my very best not to look at his face.

However, when Naruto said absolutely nothing in response I looked up at his face. He was grinning like I'd never seen him grin before. As if I'd just said _exactly_ what he wanted to hear. I caught on immediately.

"Naruto, look, I didn't mean—"

"If you're not used to it yet…"

"That's not what it was supposed to sound like—"

"We should make sure you get used to it, so you won't be so embarrassed." He said, advancing forward.

I backed into the sink. I was torn between escaping and letting myself be caught. I loved him, but, come on, we were both so new to this…

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

That was the first day of my entire life where I actually asked myself 'what was the point of even getting dressed today?' but that was what I asked myself a good few hours later. Now my clothes had been ripped off of me a good three times after breakfast. Plus, after what I'd been through in the past 24 hours, if it weren't for the drug, I'd probably be broken.

I stared at the ceiling, asking myself why I'd gotten dressed when Naruto looked up at me and said: "Six is a good number but seven is definitely better since it's lucky. Wanna go for seven, Sakura?"

I looked at him reprovingly for a second and he looked genuinely scared of what I would say for a moment. "You're a demon." I told him.

He laughed, looking relieved. "And loving every minute of it!"

I smacked myself on the forehead and tired to roll over and find my clothes for, now, the fourth time but Naruto caught me around the waist and pulled me closer to him. "I'm so glad you remember me, Sakura." He whispered in my ear.

I relaxed into him but hoped this would not give him enough stimulation to fuck me another time because my whole lower body was going numb now and it had absolutely nothing to do with the drug. I was wrong.

.-.o.x.0.X.O.X.0.x.o.-.

"Yes! Seven!" Naruto cheered. "I love you, Sakura!"

"You love _sex_, Naruto." I corrected him.

"Aw, c'mon, you know that I love you more." He told me reassuringly but the extremely happy tone in his voice wasn't entirely convincing.

"Uh-huh." I muttered skeptically.

Naruto swung over so he was now hovering above me. I couldn't escape now because, despite my loathing of Inner Sakura, she was right. Naruto was a beast and I was as good as paralyzed. "I _love_ you, Sakura. I love you so much that it's completely unreal." He said.

The heartfelt tone of his voice was so pitiable that I almost cried at these words alone.

"I love you, too." I uttered back, determined not to start bawling.

"Then marry me."

"What?" I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.

"Marry me." He repeated like he was talking about the weather. Like a proposal after a day with seven sexcapades and a deadly illness alert was completely normal.

"Naruto, I'm going to die." I told him, thinking he might of forgotten, somewhere between all the excellent sex.

"Actually, Sakura, I think I figured it out." He said, decidedly.

"Figured what out?"

"This whole thing! I figured it out! I can now say, with 100 percent certainty, that there is no chance of you dying."

"W-What?" I asked, flabbergasted. Since the minute my blood has been taken so many months ago, I had been sure I was going to die. That there was no other option.

Naruto looked eager now.

"You're not gonna die, Sakura! So marry me!"


	14. Construe

_A/N: A quick update because I'm on spring break right now and actually can._

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 14**

**Construe**

Naruto wasted no time rushing into an explanation that I would never have expected to hear: Especially not from Naruto.

"Well, when you were unconscious at the hospital, Tsunade-baa-chan explained a few things, and I began working it all out, that's why I came over here last night! I figured it out!"

"Figured _what _out?"

"How it is that you're not going to die! I remember you telling me that you fell for an easy trap, remember, when you first told me?" Naruto reminded me.

"Yes…" I could not yet see where this was going.

"Well, I asked Tsunade to explain, because I wanted a distraction. She told me that you'd been cornered in an alley by a thug guy who could use chakra scalpels and an obnoxious kid with a syringe." He said, his voice rushing forward in excitement. "She then explained to me and the doctors that the black blood was attacking the part of your brain that controls your memories and your movement."

I nodded because I understood what he was talking about but I could still not see a solution.

He looked at me, knowing I had no idea what he was trying to say. "Don't you see what I mean? If they were _trying_ to kill you why didn't he just to it back there in the alley? Tsunade said that you passed out after getting the shot so it would have been easy for the guy with the chakra scalpels to kill you then and there, right? So why didn't he?"

I felt like a five year old being asked a question I _should_ know the answer too. "Um, because he's a sadistic fuck-face that wanted me to suffer."

"Well, that may be true, but still, Sakura, this means he wanted you alive! He wants you to _live!_"

"You lost me." I informed him.

"Think about it. First, the black blood made you really strong. Like when we were on that mission and you flipped a shit when that guy cut your throat? It was a defense mechanism. When you are cut you get super strong and lose yourself and tear the offender to smithereens. If they wanted you dead, why would there be a defense mechanism?"

I was starting to get it now. "So, what _do_ they want?" I wondered aloud.

"C'mon, Sakura, since when were you not the brain of team seven? Think!" Naruto urged, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I really can't think right now." This was pretty true, considering Naruto and I were still naked, it was good I could still _breathe_ normally.

"Then let me explain." Naruto said, puffing out his chest, definitely happy to finally be in the position to teach anybody something. "Remember when your body parts started going numb?" I nodded dumbly. "And then when you lost your memory?" How could I forget? (How could you forget the time when you forgot everything?)

"They're not trying to kill you, Sakura." Naruto repeated, leaning forward. I could tell that this was the pivotal moment in his speech. "They're trying to _change_ you."

"You lost me again." I said pointedly.

"They're making you into a weapon!" Naruto said like these words were all he wanted to say the whole time. "Making you super strong and invincible? Making you lose all your important memories? Sakura, don't you see, you weren't supposed to remember! They didn't want you to remember, Sakura, they didn't want you tied down anywhere. They wanted you to forget so that you could go join them!"

Now it was making a lot of sense and I was feeling stupid for not realizing all of this before. "But I did remember." I muttered.

"Which is why good sex is _always_ the answer!" Naruto declared goofily.

I was itching to smack him. I resisted the temptation and instead asked, "So who do you believe is behind it, oh knowledgeable one?"

"Well that was the hard part to figure out. I figured the big hint was that the guy who attacked you could use chakra scalpels so he had to be a medic nin. Besides Kabuto, I couldn't think of a medic nin that would hate you. And then I thought that it couldn't possibly be Kabuto because he's such a skived out little freak that he probably would have taken you to Orochimaru right there."

I was sitting, shocked, and listening attentively, because this was all starting to make sense.

"So I stopped being so narrow minded and tried to think of all the medic ninja we knew. Immediately, of course, I eliminated all of Konoha's medical ninja because, far from hating you, they all love you and wouldn't have a hope in a fight against you. Then the only other medic nin I actually knew was Chiyo-baa-sama." _a/n: in case anyone forgot, because this really was a long time ago, Chiyo was the old lady from the Sand village that was related to Sasori._

"But… Chiyo's dead, and it can't have been her, she'd never…" I muttered, dumbstruck and lost once again.

"Of course I know it couldn't have been Chiyo-baa-sama, we saw her buried," Naruto explained calmly.

"Then I don't understand, why even bring her up?" I asked.

"Because," said Naruto, "We _didn't_ see Sasori buried."

My jaw, literally, unhinged. No way. I was already catching on, I didn't need Naruto to explain it any more, I understood.

"You once told me that when you fought Sasori with Chiyo-baa-sama, she had said that Sasori hadn't aged a day from when he last saw her. This means that Sasori must have not left until he was at least sixteen. By that age, Chiyo-baa-sama was bound to have taught him some medical techniques, including chakra scalpels. And even if she hadn't, he's in Akatsuki so it wouldn't have been difficult for him to learn it, especially if he's been planning this since you defeated him. I'm also guessing that the kid was a puppet. Sasori attacked you, Sasori's alive, and Sasori has come after you for revenge." Naruto concluded.

I looked at him.

"_He's making you into a puppet."_ Naruto told me.


	15. The Hunt Begins

_A/N: All of you had questions so I decided, even though I don't do this often, that I'd enlist Sakura and Naruto to explain my reasoning and why it ended up like this._

Sakura: This is an Akatsuki fic?!

Naruto: Yup.

Sakura: Since when?!

Naruto: Since the beginning!

Sakura: This was all planned?! The author actually had a plan from the beginning?!

Naruto: Well, when she started she planned on the plot twist and had three scenarios. Scenario one was Orochimaru-related where you would be bait to get Saskue back and you could end up with Kabuto (your kind captor), Sasuke (rescuer), or me (the idiot who went to save you then got caught and imprisoned with you).

Sakura: …

Naruto: Scenario two was the Sasuke-scenario where this would all be a jealous plot performed by Karin (sick of hearing Sasuke compare her to the oh-so awesome Sakura) making a split story of both yours and Karin's character development.

Sakura: …………

Naruto: And then there was the Sasori-scenario which is the one the author went with.

Sakura: How… how could she do this to me?!

Naruto: Simply. She just distracted the readers with a tragic love-dilemma plot line running parallel with your health so no one would much focus on how or why you were 'dying'.

Sakura: The author… she's an evil genius… isn't she?

Naruto: Nah, she was just angsty when she began this story almost a year ago.

Sakura: How do you know all this?

Naruto: (foxy grin) I seduced the author, of course!

_And that's how it is._

**Cry For Me**

**Chapter 15**

**The Hunt Begins**

_**Okay, so we're not going to die…**_

_That's good news…_

_**But we're going to be made into a puppet…**_

_That's bad news…_

I looked at Naruto, stunned completely into absolute silence. I took several deep breaths before I was able to speak again. "Wow," was all I managed to say.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" he asked, suddenly concerned. "You're looking kind of green…" he explained, holding onto my shoulders so I wouldn't fall off the bed.

"Sasori…" I muttered, raising my right hand to hold my forehead. "Are… are you sure?" I asked him, looking into his eyes.

"Well, there's no actual proof, it's mostly guess work," Naruto admitted. "But what else could it be? Everything fits this way."

"So I'm not dying…" I muttered, mostly to myself, still trying to grasp the concept. For the past several months, I was sure there was no other option. There had been no glimmer of hope in my mind and now Naruto just blows all those negative clouds away. Only to replace them with more clouds! "A puppet… Sasori's puppet weapon." I remembered all too clearly Sasori's massive puppet collection. They were weapon riddled and doused in poison but they were also lifeless. Did Sasori, perhaps, if all this guess work was correct, plan on changing me into a living puppet like he had done to himself?

I shivered at the thought.

But why would he? For what purpose? He couldn't have been planning to torment me by making me watch the destruction of everything and everybody I love because he had planned to make me forget everything and everybody I loved. So why?

I came up with no answer. Was this really just a simple revenge scheme? If I had just been a zombie, lacking memories, it didn't seem like much revenge. I wouldn't even know anything was wrong. Every reason I could come up with seemed totally delusional and not at all possible. I cast my suspicions aside and focused back on the present, on Naruto.

I looked at his face, so honest and familiar and loving. Tears pushed at the beck on my eyes, never wanting to even consider leaving his side. "I'm scared" I whispered with such sincerity it took him a moment to wipe the shock off of his face.

He leaned forward and hugged me around the shoulders, resting his chin on my head as he pushed my face to his bare chest. "Don't be. I'll find him. I'll put a stop to this." He vowed.

I pulled away, suddenly afraid. I remembered with terrifying clarity Sasori's strength and abilities. I remembered how difficult it was to beat him and just now I was finding out we hadn't even killed him. I didn't want Naruto fighting Sasori. I couldn't even beat Sasori, and Chiyo had sacrifice herself just to beat him and she had years more experience and power than Naruto or I had. I was sure Naruto wouldn't be able to beat Sasori on his own. He'd lose.

"Alone?" I choked out, fighting back sobs begging to escape.

"We could get a team together, if that will make you feel better…" Naruto suggested, reading the worry in my eyes.

"Infinitely." I told him.

Naruto sighed. "Really, you have no faith in me, do you?"

"Of course I do!" I protested. "I just don't want to even consider losing you!"

He trapped my face between his two too-warm hands and brought his face close to mine. "You should be more worried about yourself." He kissed my forehead.

I sighed as he got up and pulled on boxers and a pair of sweats. Then he went to the kitchen. I got up and put on some clothes. Okay, just panties and Naruto's oversized T-shirt, but whatever. Then I went to the kitchen, too, and found him standing in front of the microwave, waiting for his instant ramen to finish. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pushed myself against him, watching the foam cup revolve. I was glad I kept instant ramen in my house even though I don't often eat it now.

Naruto put his arm around me and kissed my hair. I looked up and kissed his jaw. He leaned down and kissed my lips. I tightened my grip around his waist, squeezing myself closer to him, deepening the kiss. His lips smirked against mine but he didn't retreat. One of his hands wound to the small of my back and the other cradled the back of my head. He took my bottom lip between both of his and sucked it for a minute, ensuring its swollenness later. I moaned when he finally released my lip. He kissed me again, running his tongue along my lips, and I parted them for him immediately. His tongue entered my mouth and our tongues danced. I moaned as his tongue overtook mine.

We broke apart, grudgingly, just then when the microwave beeped, signaling that the ramen was done. Naruto grabbed a pair of my chopsticks, sat on the counter, and dug in. "I don't know about you, Sakura, but sex sure makes me hungry!" he said between mouthfuls.

_There he goes again with the open sex talk._

_**Eh, don't be so embarrassed.**_

I didn't have much of an appetite so I just grabbed a string cheese out of my fridge and nibbled on it as Naruto ate. I peeked up at him from under my lashes. "Maybe we should go see Tsunade after this." I suggested.

He looked up at me, mouth stuffed with ramen noodles. He quickly tried to swallow but began to choke. I burst into laughter as he tried to perform the Heimlich on himself. He succeeded and chewed carefully before swallowing this time. "Sure," he finally answered with as much pride he could maintain after his little episode.

I smiled at him, finishing off the string cheese. He finished his ramen in silence but it was a comfortable silence. What more was there to say? When done, he threw the used chopsticks and foam cup in my trashcan that was in cupboard under the sink. We returned to my room where I changed into a simple dress and Naruto took his shirt back. We returned to the front room to put on our shoes then exited my wooden door to see my quiet suburban street welcoming dusk.

Naruto kept his arm wrapped around my waist as we walked to the Hokage tower. This unconscious action was good though because I had a chance to lean against Naruto without rousing suspicion. The truth was that I was feeling a bit lightheaded moving around so much after the days… activities. Plus the looming possibility of me being made into a puppet didn't help.

Naruto led easily, humming a soft tune I did not recognize. I watched the sun sinking slowly behind the hills, lighting the nearly clear sky on fire. Somehow, in that single instant, with the combination of the end of another day and the smell of the ramen Naruto had just eaten, I felt the horrible urge to weep with sorrowful regret.

Naruto felt me flinch beside him as I tried to hold back the tears. He gazed at me curiously. I reminded myself several times to calm down and composed myself quickly. I squeezed myself tighter to Naruto to let him know I was alright. He continued toward the tower but glanced down at e more often, dropping kisses in my hair every now and again.

When we reached the tower the guards, playing beer pong this time outside of Tsunade's door, waved us through as if annoyed by our interruption of their game. Tsunade looked uncharacteristically sober when we entered. She had her feet up on her desk and was leaning back, reading a scroll with palpable nonchalance. I cleared by throat to alert her to our presence. She peered around the scroll to stare at us before her face broke into a smile, seeing Naruto's arm around my waist like it was his god given right to place his arm there.

I smiled lightly at her reaction.

"What can I do for the two lovebirds today?" she asked with hardly contained glee.

"Well, you'll never guess the conclusion Naruto reached yesterday about my current… situation." I told her.

"Oh really?" she asked and turned her gaze on Naruto. "Well, boy, let's hear it."

Naruto needed no further introduction to launch into the same theory he had shared with me only a short while ago. Tsunade often looked shocked or confused during the story, but at the end she looked mildly hopeful.

"We were hoping we could get a team together to go after Sasori. I'm fairly positive he is no longer working with Akatsuki so I don't think it will require ANBU assistance." Naruto reasoned. Despite his logic, both me and Tsunade could guess that he really just wanted to get a good crack at Sasori himself rather than hand the job over to someone else with less motivation.

Tsunade sighed, suddenly forlorn looking. "Lately the elders had been really strict on the amount of people in teams. With tensions between our two neighboring villages and the recent uprising in missing nin we don't have many nin to spare." She explained, obviously not too happy about this fact. "The best I can do for you at the moment is to assign it as an A-class mission to Team 7." She concluded, already digging through her desk for the proper paper work.

Naruto looked like this would satisfy him but I was wishing she could assign a few more ninja to put between Sasori and Naruto. I didn't argue the matter though as the elders were already very harsh on Tsunade and I understood her having to comply with their wishes. She marked the four scrolls with her seal and handed them to us. "Don't mind delivering those, do you?" she asked.

We knew better to protest. We said our parting words then left to find Kakashi and Sai to give them their mission scrolls that matched ours. Kakashi was at his flat. He seemed impressed by Naruto's deductive reasoning when he found out the reason behind the mission and agreed to meeting at the north gate of the village tomorrow morning to set off. We found Sai on the way to his apartment.

We explained everything to him and at the end of our tale he looked at Naruto. "You had a _brain?" _He asked with insulting shock. Then he smiled one of his rare real smiles before taking off, agreeing to meet us the next morning.

Naruto and I stood in the middle of the road, holding hands. We were closer to Naruto's apartment now than we were to my house.

"Wanna go to my place?" Naruto asked, as if he had read my mind.

I looked over at him and smiled. "Sure," I said, cheerfully, knowing full well that he would want more sex before even thinking of allowing me to sleep even though I was thoroughly exhausted.

The next morning, Naruto and I were the first to the northern entrance. We chatted with the ninja standing guard there. They seemed a lot more reliable than the ones guarding Tsunade's office. Sai showed up next, holding a duffle bag that looked as full as my bag and Naruto's backpack. We didn't know how long we were going to be gone.

Finally Kakashi showed up, less late than usual.

"Yo." He greeted us when he appeared in a _poof_ of smoke. "So," he said, slipping into strategy mode. "If Naruto's theory is correct I think it is safe to assume that Sasori is close by, waiting for Sakura to fully lose her memory. Most likely he is hiding out in the woods. We should start this mission by searching a ten mile radius around the village in the most heavily forested areas. We may have to split up at times but no one is to go out of range of the communication mikes, okay?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Let's do this," Naruto smiled with a little too much malice.

"Whatever," Sai responded with his usual amount of apathy.

With that we set off into the forests I had known my whole life; suddenly they felt so unfamiliar. Maybe it was because they were probably harboring the puppeteer trying to kill me…?


End file.
